So with Caribbean International Brewery under mounting pressure from immigration, the tax services department the the financial intelligence unit - is it, as the company has stated, some kind of plot to put them out of business?
They are not the only investor in the Orange Walk District that feels "hard done" by government and its agencies.
ASR/BSI also feels that the government has historically favored the cane farmers over the factory owner.
And Vulcan Mining - which has eyes on Gales Point - keeps saying it will go through the necessary regulatory processes to mine the White Ridge Estate - but government has already flatly told them "n-o."
Now, each of those stories has its own back story - but stripping it of context for a minute - do all those situations sour the investment climate overall? The PM was on the defensive when we asked about this today:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Absolutely not, they are not the only three companies in this country. There are thousands of companies in this country and when you look at them individually. When you look at Vulcan, what Vulcan wanted to come and do is something that goes totally contrary to what it stands for eco-tourism and paradise, and that we have made a commitment to humanity that we are going to do everything that we possibly can to protect the natural beauty of what we have. Probably, Vulcan was going to do this in another area of the country maybe we would have considered it, we don't know. I don't think it's something that we support but I repeat. If Vulcan, this does not prevent Vulcan from applying they can apply and go through the process, but we believe that as a government that is not something that we want to support. With Caribbean Investment, the brewery I had absolutely no idea what was going down and as you know they do need to check with me and so that is under investigation right now and the issue of the undisclosed money and the issues with immigration but we do support them. They are, creating jobs for Belizeans so there is full support for them from that angle but then everybody has to follow the law it doesn't matter who they are and with ASR/BSI and the cane farmers association that has been an ongoing problem, um, both entities are private and under the law of the land they have the right to be able to have, to decide what they think is in their best interest and the government can only try to assist to keep the discussion going, in December. I had to step in to with the strike, that is what we do as a government."
We also asked the Deputy Prime Minister - who has held a very hard line on Vulcan - about the investment climate:
Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister
"I've been around for a long time and I don't think that there has been any more investment from any government than this government. That's a declared statement from the get-go. You can be open for business, you can be open for investment, but at the same time too you need to have policies in place that you need to abide by and in our case there are times we have policies that run diametrically opposed to what some foreign interest or some foreign investor may what to purse. So, when that happens, we need to side with the people and go along with what we believe is right for the people of Belize."
