The Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes the news very regularly, especially when the topic of the bilateral relations with Guatemala comes up.
But, you'd be surprised to know that this very important Ministry didn't have an office of its own - in the city, it had to be sharing one with the Prime Minister and his wife the Special Envoy for Women and Children, and in Belmopan, it was stealing space from NEMO. That's until today when the Foreign Affairs Ministry signed documents to purchase a 3 million dollar building in Belize City.
It's a luxury residence called Casa de Fiori, and it's located at #10 St. Mark's Street. The best part is that Belizeans taxpayers did not spend a dollar for the purchase. It's all a gift from the ever generous Taiwanese Government.
This evening, the Foreign Affairs officials opened it officially with a small ceremony, and 7News was there. Here's what the Foreign Affairs Minister had to say about it:
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairss
"This is the first time in the history of the country that we have a building that is dedicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we're getting that through the courtesy of the government of Taiwan through the SICA program. We buy this building for 1.5 million U.S dollars, costing 6 million to build it and incidentally t was built by Sir Andy. I saw it being built because I used to walk along the mornings and passed by here and go around when I did my walking. It is a fabulous building."
Reporter
"You were talking a little bit about the funding for the building, can you clarify for us because some people might look at it and say 'wow how can Belize afford lodging like this?"
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"How can Belize not afford lodging like this? I think we tend to sell ourselves short. We seem to think that we should not have the best in life, when we should have the best in life as long as we work for it. For years Taiwanese government has been giving money to the SICA countries including Belize for the strengthening of their ministries of foreign affairs. All of them have built beautiful buildings to house their ministry of foreign affairs. This is the only country that has not done that, we have gotten the money, we have spent it on different things, different purposes and from time to time you've heard different scandals about the use of the money. We ensure that did not happen in this case. We ensure that we will get the best value for money and that's why we have such a lovely building at such a wonderful price."
H.E. Benjamin Ho, Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize
"The ministry for us is very small rooms."
Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"It's going to be an office here for the Ministry of Foreign affairs, foreign minister while I down in Belize City. Prime Minister will also be housed in this office when he's down in Belize City. Presently we shared the one at Coney drive, so this is a replacement of that. Coney drive was being rented, this is our own property."
So, the Ministry in Belmopan, which had been occupying important space for NEMO, will now move out. Also, the Coney Drive Office, which the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Prime Minister used to occupy, will move over to Villa Fiori. They were paying rent for that, and that money will now be saved.
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