And while the Sports Stadium is the public centerpiece of President Chen’s visit what everyone has been trying to find out is: how much economic assistance will the Taiwanese provide to Belize? President Chen has spoken only in very broad, non-specific terms about assistance to the government, and the suddenly silent Belizean Prime Minister today refused to speak to us about that or any other issue. So what will government do to meet its crushing debt obligations amounting to $25 million in December alone? Well, government today confirmed that it proposes to float a 10 year, US$100 million bond at 9.95% percent with the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
According to a government representative $65 million of the bond will be used for refinancing, and $35 million will be used for capital projects. But what the government is presenting as a sure thing, may not be quite that. According to this document obtained by 7NEWS and dated yesterday, at this point, it is only a proposal, for discussion purposes. In fact a thorough due diligence must be completed before the bond is approved. But today, government representatives, possibly desperate for a credibility boost after three successive downgrades by Standard and Poor’s were putting out the news like its money in the bank and from what we have been able to gather, that is hardly the case.
For context we note that the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has securitized well over US$100 million in mortgages for the DFC, and specify that the use of the proceeds of this bond will be to refinance these securitizations. According to our records, Belize currently owes this bank just over US$60 million.