And soon you won't just be seeing upgraded Belizean buses, but Guatemalan and Mexican buses as well. The minister has long been trying to work out a deal where foreign buses will be able to come into Belize without disrupting the runs that the local operators have. In exchange, though, those operators would be allowed to venture into neighboring countries.
But is the deal that Minister Ferguson brokered really a fair exchange?
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"As we are here to try to upgrade and improve the bus runs across this country, I can now say that Cabinet has given us directive to bring it Fuento Del Norte from Guatemala and ADO from the north to bring passengers into Belize as tourists. They will stop at specific locations but not to pick up any Belizeans, unless you are a Belizean and you want to go to Merida, you can catch a bus from a particular location to go across Corozal, not to stop in Corozal so it will not affect our local operators."
Reporter:
"Are you sure, you dont expect backlash? How do you police that minister?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"We are going to police that because they are going to stop only at terminals so our local operators at terminals and our local supervisors will make sure that they pick up only passengers who want to go across the borders on both sides."
Reporter:
"So have our local operators been notified and…?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"They've been notified, hopefully by next week, there should be a press release to say exactly what we are going to do."
Reporter:
"And how many runs are we talking about?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"I think Fuente Del Norte is one run per day and ADO eventually will be three runs per day from Mexico side."
Reporter:
"The other angle is of Belizean operators being able to do the same going into these other countries."
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"I'm sure in Guatemala, they are telling us we can go as far as Flores, Peten, but I guess some operators will get scared because its very rough when it comes to going in there. I came back from Mexico a month ago and they agreed that we can only go 20 kilometers into their country."
Reporter:
"20?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"20 into Mexico, that's how you can go to Chetumal everyday if you want to."
Reporter:
"So our operators are okay with that?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"Well, that is what the Mexican government is saying, we can't go beyond 20 kilometers."
Reporter:
"But then we allow them to come, how many kilometers?"
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"They have a big economy, we are very small economy."
Reporter:
"Precisely because of that minister."
Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Transport
"They dictate the pace, they have a very big economy, we are trying to figure out how we can increase out tourism numbers in this country."
