Hopes were set high 18 months ago when ground was broken for the Carnival Cruise Tourism Project at the Port of Belize. In the intervening 18 months, those hopes have been fading faster than a ship slipping over the horizon. But finally, this evening Carnival's Vice President of Strategic Planning Giora Israel held his first press conference in Belize to say that ground will be broken in four weeks. But will Belizeans be hired? Israel gave a commitment to that and to conform with local regulations as guests in the country.
Giora Israel, Carnival Corp. Vice-President
"We are guests in your country and we will abide by the law of this country full stop; no ifs, no buts, and no conditions. And whatever laws the government puts on, we will abide by them. There are no ifs and buts and if at Altun Ha only 100 people will come, it will be the tour operator that we work with to tell us, 'sorry I can only sell 100,' or at Blue Hole, 'we can only have 10 divers a day.' This is your country and we will accept and abide by all these laws and regulations."
Jules Vasquez,
Will you give a public undertaking that when this project starts construction and when it is completed, at the operational stage, that will employ Belizeans and Belizean agencies in a preferential fashion, not just if we are the lowest available tenderer?
Giora Israel,
"There are two aspects. One is the construction period, if you will. During the construction, and I think we have made it public, during the construction period with the exception of three probably specific cases, one is the pier design, the other one is the land based conceptual design, and the other one is part of the maritime construction. These three will be offered on an international bid, just these three elements. All other construction, all other work, will only be bid out and offered in Belize for Belizeans. Regarding the operation, from the day we open we don't expect to use any non-Belizeans in any service whatsoever. Why should we? There are enough here."
The original 30 year Carnival Contract was signed in April of 2004 by the Prime Minister without any public disclosure or Cabinet approval. The secretive nature of that document led to a bitter inter-Cabinet struggle and a challenge to that document forcing a re-negotiation and a subsequent clarification document signed in November. Since then, the delay has been the negotiation between the private port, Belize Ports Limited and Carnival Corporation to work out their terms of agreement for the company called Belize Cruise Terminal Limited which will own and operate the Belize Cruise Terminal. That agreement was signed today and the announcement of work commencement within four weeks followed this evening. The estimated $100 million project should be finished by summer of 2007.
