And switching gears, bus owners were at first hesitant sign onto the proposal for a national bus company, but slowly, they're hopping onboard. The last time we spoke to the CEO of transport he told us 18 had joined so far. And so we asked the minister today how the process is coming along.
Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport:
"Yes they are all joining we have about 22 now who are signed on who have expressed that they are willing to go through the next step which is for the auditing firms to come to their facilities and assess their assets and conduct and analysis of their cash flows that their company can be evaluated when that is completed we hope by the end of August certainly by the middle of September we can determine the value of all those who had agreed because it is voluntary to be apart of the National bus company and once we have that then we can have an opening balance sheet and government will be contributing to the terminals that are out there now and we will then prepare a prospectus so that institutional investors like the social security and other bus companies will be able to look at the investment opportunity that will primarily be focused on improving all the terminals across the country and building a good other 4 terminals that really don't exist in certain municipalities like orange walk and San Ignacio and Punta Gorda."
The entire Belize Bus Association comprises of 31 bus operators, which means that 70% have signed on so far.
