But there will have to be many more compromises. That's according to the Belize Chamber of Commerce which today called a press conference to warn against the push and pull between G.O.B and the unions that threatens to capsize an economy that's already listing in deep waters.
The interview followed a non-comital press release from the Chamber that urged both sides to "urgently settle outstanding issues." Here's just a portion of the stark warning from chamber president Marissa Longsworth - which she shared in a Zoom conference.
Marissa Longsworth - President, BCC "One of the major concerns that we have at this point of time with the actions that we're seeing occurring both from the end with the unions and from the end with the government is that we are coming to an unavoidable or seemingly unavoidable impasse which can be very damaging for the country, it can be damaging as we look at matters to do with how we fast track economic recovery and for the business community, that is really the biggest concern. We understand that parties will have differences and when I say parties, I mean different entities will always have differences but the ability to negotiate and come to peaceful resolution so that we are all in it together as we move forward is just as important in trying to ensure that whatever path is taken has all stakeholders putting in 100% of their own effort and energy to see common goals come to reality. The conclusion of the press release in its last sentence was that the BCCI remains ready and willing to assist in the mediation of such settlement. We see it as important for there to be possibly some other perspective inserted into the situation at this point in time. Obviously, the negotiations instead of coming closer to a meeting point somewhere in the middle are actually going in the opposite direction to extreme tangents of opposing views. The problem with that is that if we can move ahead with such strong opposing views the ability for the government to move confidently without there being protests or barriers to actually bringing the plans to light or bringing developments out the way that they intend for it be. Unless there is some amount of confidence and trust in that relationship what's going to end up happening is that we will face consistent obstacles along the way as it relates to how the actions for ultimately for the betterment of the country are received by all the stakeholders. And it's for that reason that having seeing and watched and listen and observe for quite a while, that the negotiations are not coming to a consensus point. It became the chamber's perspective that we have to take a very proactive approach in saying okay, maybe there is a need for objective, unbiased person or entity to be a part of the negotiation process to get to the point of some amount of settlement."
