body,td,th { font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; }
The Corozal Free Zone - it's not what it was at the hight of its popularity with Mexican shoppers, but the news of its death has been greatly exaggerated. According to a government release from 2021 to the present, the Zone has recorded 42% increase in movement of vehicles and people, with a total of 1.1 Million visitors - and those aren't just blue plates scoring duty free liquor!
And to keep the Zone viable, the government of Belize in Collaboration with CABEI gathered enough funding to upgrade the Santa Elena access road into the zone. It's only one precious mile which will cost 2.9 Million dollars to pave. Here's why:
Dr Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development
"The rehabilitation of the Corozal Free Zone Road represent a collective effort to enhance the infrastructure that plays a vital role in connecting the business owners and investors and facilitating a safe and smooth flow of traffic. So as we stand here today, we can witness the tangible results of collaboration, foresight and shared vision for a better future."
Gisela Sánchez Maroto, President of CABEI
"We are 100% committed to driving economic and social growth in Belize by strengthening the productivity, by supporting tourism, of course, and by being more efficient in terms of providing connectivity. We know that the free zone, the Corozal Free Zone is a business center with important commercial and productive infrastructure and that is a very important link in the country's economy."
"So in this sense, we are sure that making more efficient access to these businesses and their routes through the access road will be essential for the growth of the of the operations."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"As you all know when we took over the freezone, the infrastructure, that was in November of 2020 the freezone was closed down and the infrastructure was in a really deplorable state. And with the same funds that the freezone had been generating we've managed to kind of fix the entrance a little bit but we know we have to go a long way so we managed to convince CABEI to give a grant through the Taiwan fund and they are making a donation I think it's about 1.9 million and then government of Belize is putting in another million so we are going to be paving from the Santa Elena bridge all the way to the entrance of the freezone. So it's importantly significant especially for what CEO Neri Ramirez said that we have over a million visitors last year."
