The opening of Belize's first cement factory signals progress in the right direction - towards an industrialized and developed country.
And while it is auspicious, it's a Guatemalan company, which raises its own issues about who's controlling the commanding heights of the economy.
But government is applauding it, and the Prime Minister today welcomed "Cementos Progresso" from Guatemala with the inauguration of Cementos Rocafuerte.
Courtney Menzies went up to the factory at mile 34 on the George Price Highway today and has this story.
Belize can now take one more product off its import list: cement. A cement factory is a mark of a fast growing, industrial minded society, but this has long eluded Belize.
But now, with the opening of Cementos Rocafuerte at Mile 34 in the Cayo District, cement can now be made in-country.
And the Prime Minister was there to observe the historical inauguration of the factory, which is part of the Cementos Progresso Group in Guatemala. He told us that the idea for this factory was a long time in development, and that it will largely impact Belize's development for the better.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It started a few years ago when, as I'm told, the people from Santander, the managers and so forth Cementos Progresso, they know one another personally and they decided to come and take a look at Belize and they liked what they saw and decided to make this investment that we're inaugurating today. As I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of opportunities in Belize, the problem is that many people don't know about the opportunities, and so we have also to ensure that we use this investment as an example so that other people from Central America can come in an invest in Belize because by investing in Belize, we create opportunities, we create taxes, we collect taxes, we create job for people and using Belize as a springboard to markets for instance like in Caricom and in other areas so we're quite excited about this investment and we're quite hopeful that it is something that we'd be able to create opportunities for Belize, help with the balance of payments, we have a huge imbalance, so we have to find anyway to attract investment in Belize to make things better for Belize and it goes in line with what we've been saying in Plan Belize."
And the CEO of Cementos Progresso, Jose Raul Gonzalez, explained that a cement factory is just what Belize needs to grow its infrastructure.
Jose Raul Gonzalez, CEO, Progresso
"We are proudly now producing cement made in Belize by Belizean hands. For us, it was very important to consolidate the persons of Progresso Guatemala and for Belize to have strategic source of a product that mean development, that mean progress, and that is very important for the infrastructure of this country. It's been a little bit more than 8 million dollars in investment, European technology that you will see, which meets only environmental and quality standards that this country deserves. It was a few years ago when Mario and Fernando and I visited and the ministers at that time and we were very pleased by the welcoming of the authorities and the support that we received from them even during the pandemic. So the show must go on, life must go on, and the development of Belize shouldn't be stopped neither by the virus nor by the lack of proper building materials which we can proudly say that were made by around 28 local citizens in the initial phase of the investment here in Belize."
So does that mean the government will save some much needed cash on cement? The PM said he hopes those contracted by the Ministry of Infrastructure will consider using local cement.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We're hoping that the cement is going to be cheaper and more easily available and so that we would definitely encourage the users that are working with government and even for personal use, the local contractors, to use the cement. It is Belizean product and the more they can sell in Belize, it's better for us because we collect more taxes and we import less."
The plant is on a 25 acre compound.
