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The Council and their financial advisors held a press conference this morning in Belmopan to highlight a few of the more important elements of the bond. 7News attended, and here's what they had to say:

Khalid Belisle, Mayor - City of Belmopan
"As Senator Duncan explained, you're getting little or nothing at the banks at this point in time. I think it's costing the bigger intuitional investors like the insurance companies - costing them to have their monies lodge in the banks right now. I think Mr. Perez informed me that there was actually a small negative interest rate running at the banks in terms of these large sums of money. That's what he tells me and so we believe that the City of Belmopan at this point in time with this bond offering is a safer bet for investors, particularly like we said we have the big intuitional investors that will take up the bulk of our offering. But we really do want to cater to the everyday Belizean - the wider public that has that 10-15-20 thousand dollars - they just got their gratuity in bulk from government or wherever it is and they are looking for somewhere to invest it. Because our interest rates are fairly good, starting at three and a half, maturing in year two. So two years from now that first bond offering matures at three and a half percent going all the way up to seven and a quarter percent in year 14 and remember that you are collecting interest on this all the way through until your principal matures. So that's why we believe that it's a good bet and we are happy to be able to offer it to Belizeans."

"As Senator Duncan mentioned, the list of the big guys that are lining up to get involved in this - its long and because of that we can see that the bond will easily be subscribed."

Ervin Perez, Managing Director - Legacy Fund
"Speaking to the mayor, he has always said Mr. Perez we want to see the participating on the community in the bond offering and so even in terms of the structuring of this size, the minimal investment size of the bond, structured at a thousand dollars was for that participation. Because institutional investors tend to buy in the hundreds of thousands and millions. But we wanted to see the small mom and pop retail investor also participate. As Mr. Duncan said, the bankers are not giving you much on interest. Have the Belmopan City Council pay you more."

Khalid Belisle, Mayor - City of Belmopan
"We continue to insist and believe that the City of Belmopan is a good bet for any investor and it is now being reflected in terms of the subscriptions that we are receiving towards the bond. We are roughly 40% subscribed already and that is because we really haven't been doing any public advertising. Our advertising or approach to selling has been sort of private, targeting those intuitional investors like the insurance companies who have that liquid capital that they need somewhere to invest it and so we are roughly today at 2.7 already sold, out of that 6.5 with discussions continuing with several other investors."

Steven Duncan, Managing Director, Heritage Bank
"No bank and no banker likes to be part of anything that fails and if we thought it would fail, we would not add our name to it. So we feel comfortable like the mayor has expressed and for all intents and purposes I feel that those who have purchase bonds so far and when I see the names and when I see the people who are purchasing, it is a clear reflection that there is broad confidence in what is happening."

Khalid Belisle, Mayor - City of Belmopan
"As far as bond repayment goes, the reason why it is stretched out over that 14 year period and the reason it's structured as it is, is because of that government of Belize subvention that we have now locked away from ourselves. I'll tell you that even though we are here today, officially announcing the roll out of the bond, we have been locking that subvention away since January of this year. So January, February and we are now in March, in another week or two we will have that 3rd $50,000 government of Belize subvention in the sinking fund that Heritage. In terms of security, we are certain that bond holders can rest assured that they will be repaid, unless for some reason the government would decide to cut that subvention which I would hope would never be the case."

"What happens to subsequent council down the road if the landscape were to change? Well it is why we, this present council is insistent in putting the measures in place that will ensure that the council will be able to continue to provide those services that the residents of Belize has become accustomed to and expect and rightly deserve."

So, where exactly will the proceeds of the bond be invested? That's what we asked the Mayor, and he shared the plan for the parts of the City which will get the upgrades that are very much needed at this time:

Khalid Belisle, Mayor - City of Belmopan
"We have estimated that our deficit in terms of infrastructure in the city at this point is roughly 20 million dollars' worth. This is only for 6.5, so you see that we are not even being able to cover to bring ourselves up to speed in terms of where we are infrastructure-wise in the city of Belmopan. Of the 6.5 like I said, we get to invest roughly 5-5.5 of it because of that facility that we are retiring. It does save us $14,000 a month payment to HRCU, so we are glad to retire that a lower interest rate for the city. But in terms of the works that we plan to carry out, we are targeting Cohune Walk Phase 1. I think that is either 6-7 streets. We are targeting Belmopan Heights Phase 1. That's another 6-7 streets. We are targeting what's called the BTL housing area over on south Belmopan. I think that's 5 streets. We have some major thoroughfares like Rio Grande Avenue over on the north side of the city that's heavily trafficked, in desperate need of an upgrade and hoping to put in a pedestrian pass, at least on one side of the road, because it does have a lot of foot traffic as well. Targeting Hummingbird Avenue of the Southside of the city, that's a very heavily trafficked area in terms of vehicles and pedestrians. That's the one that runs from the Garden City Plaza all the way down to the University of Belize and we continue while we wait for estimates from the contractors, because we've put this out to the general public in terms of contractors to be able to submit bids to get in on the works. While we wait to see what kind of figures they come back with, to see if we will have anything left over for other investments."

The Mayor and his team estimates that the City needs about 20 million dollars to fully repair and upgrade the city. This bond will only cover about a little over a quarter of that.