Switching topics to the sugar industry now, Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa has been given one of the toughest tasks in government. He is chairing the ministerial sub-committee which has to find a way for ASR/BSI and the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association to resolve their differences.
It's an urgent mission to find a way towards a commercial agreement and Musa says they've already had their first meeting:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"We had the opportunity on Monday of this week to engage with the leadership of the BSCFA in Belmopan, we had a four hour meeting over at our office, very productive, very fruitful meeting, essentially doing just that, to express to the cane farmers what our position is, what our role is in this and hearing what their expectations are in terms of moving forward to resolve the dispute. There are some short terms goals that we want to clear up, that we want to achieve, and then of course there's the long term objective of arriving at a commercial agreement. Within that negotiation, there is of course the discussion on what changes might need to be made to the Belize Sugar Industries Act to modernize the act, as you know it's a very old piece of legislation and that is one of the things that the cane farmers are asking for and so the Commission of Inquiry runs parallel to our sub committee efforts which is really to engage in a meaningful way with both sides and so while we met with the cane farmers on Monday, the sub committee also met with BSR/ASI yesterday at Tower Hill and again, a very productive meeting with them and so while it is that this age old dispute seems like something that cannot be resolved if you ask anybody, it's just something that goes on every time the commercial agreement comes to an end, we believe that our involvement from a ministerial level is not just to be a sort of referee for this very important industry which affects the livelihood of a substantial portion of the north, is not just to be referees but also to lend a guiding hand and to look at it from different perspectives to see if there are other solutions that we can find like I said to this age old dispute."
Reporter:
"Sir what do you know about sugar and what do you know about this industry?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I think it has more to do with giving it a fresh pair of eyes and so I am an attorney at law and so I am familiar with how legislation is drafting, how commercial agreements are drafted, and so any attorney as you know the last person to mediate in something like this was Mrs Julie-Ann Ellis Bradley, she has no knowledge the sugar industry either and so it really involved a crash course on my part to learn every single thing that there is to know and there's still a lot that I need to learn but I think that the sub committee having had the opportunity to meet with both entities is getting a very good grasp of the situation and so we can then give a more informed opinion on these things moving forward."
As Musa noted, there is also a Commission of Inquiry to investigate best practices for the sugar industry to modernize and maximize sugar yields.
