7 News Belize

Services Sector Strategy, the Real Deal
posted (December 7, 2016)

ICT, Tourism and Culture are important service sectors and the Ministry of Economic Development want to strengthen them through regional strategies. Now we know, whenever the words report or strategy are used we lose interest and faith, because almost all the time, these draft documents don’t really do or change anything. But the Ministry’s Acting CSME Focal Point Berisford Codd, told us they plan on seriously putting these strategies into action. At today’s consultation session at the Princess hotel, Codd told us how this process works and why it is important for the service sector and the economy.

Berisford Codd - Acting CSME Focal Point, Ministry of Investment
"It’s not one strategy, its one strategy per sector so there are different sectors we are looking at, health and wellness, which deals with both medical providers and the persons who deal with spa and wellness that type of field, there is ICT and we also have professional services that touches architects , engineers and that sort of thing and there is culture  and entertainment services , we also have some other in the pipe line such as tourism, education, and sports, so each of these sectors will get their own strategy. What we really are doing is to bring all the partners today to the table so everybody can get a greater sense of where we are going as a group."

"If maybe the IT regulators may feel one way about a particular strategy but if the people from income tax, GST or from customs don’t feel the same way, because we have all stakeholders represented, we might find that we might get ahead in one sense and we might meet logs on the other end so it is really to bring everybody together and get everybody functioning on the same wave length. There Is a need to diversify economies across the region as we move away from the traditional agriculture goods like the sugar, citrus and bananas that we have all been using so then there is major need for diversification."

The consultations began in February of this year. The final draft should be ready by June/July of next year. 15 member states participated in today’s consultation and it continues tomorrow at the Princess.

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