In other news from the PM, he told us about the role he expects newly installed Executive Chairman Lynn Young to play.
Young is a former CEO and the PM explained why he's been chosen for this role:
Reporter
"We're told that there's a move to create an executive chairmanship position for Lynn Young at BEL, for him to actually have an office, similar to the chairman of BTL, Mark Lizarraga, and to answer just to you, and that the managers and so on, the CEO will have to respond to him. Is that true?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"One part is true. It's true that we want to put an executive chairman. I think that everybody knows former Ambassador Lynn Young."
"He was at BEL. He was at Fortis. He's one of the most knowledgeable persons when it comes to that industry. We know that BEL is in serious financial dire straits. But again, I quickly add, because BEL has been selling the energy for less than what it costs to purchase. And so we felt that with his expertise, he can come to help to manage and to guide the company. It does not mean that he will not answer to me, per se. He still answers to the board as an executive chairman."
PM Explains Geopolitics Of Immigrant Visa Ban
And, talking geopolitics, the PM discussed the recent US State Department decision to add Belize to the list of countries who are blacklisted for immigrant visa applications:
Reporter
"Do you consider the US is trying to punish CARICOM countries, Belize included?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"No I don't think it has anything to do with caricom I think it's just a belief that President Trump for some reason he have this misconceived notion that foreigners or immigrants when they go to the United States they are going to just to benefit from the system when every record will tell you that immigrants have built the United States so it has nothing to do punishing anybody but you notice about 75 plus countries and unfortunately Belize was one of them yet you know we really consider ourselves a good partner with the United States."
Reporter
"So, Salvador is not included I know Guatemala is but lots of people would be moving from Salvador there."
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well I think it would be in the issue of El Salvador remember they have a very very close relationship you know they open up their prison to some of the of the migrants that have been taken out of the country and so I imagine it is for that very reason that they decided to exempt them just as for the exempted Trinidad and Tobago."
Reporter
"But then do you think that it can get worse and they are trying to send a message to us?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't think so. I really don't think so but I can't speculate because even when we, when the foreign ministry got in touch with the US Embassy here in Belize and they themselves were not sure what's really taking place."
A New Police Booth Looks A Lot Like A Tool Shed, Here's Why
The business community has donated a small structure to the Belize Police department to be used as a police booth for Orange Street. We spoke to the OC for Eastern Division Reymundo Reyes this morning about the new booth that now sits near the Salvation Army building. He told us how this will assist their policing efforts downtown - while we asked, is it really just a glorified tool shed:.
Downtown Belize City has the most foot and vehicle traffic throughout the week, especially on Orange Street where most stores are located. Before police maintained their 24/7 presence here underneath a tent, keeping 2 officers on duty at all times. But thanks to donors in the business community they received a booth upgrade, to properly shelter them from the weather. OC of the Eastern Division, Sr Supt Reymundo Reyes says it will make it easier for them to conduct foot patrols through the neighborhoods.
Sr. Supt. Reymundo Reyes, OC Eastern Division
"As you rightfully know we have had police presence in this area for quite a while at first police officers used to use a tent but because of certain reasons where we saw that police officers were not actually moving around the way how we wanted and we had a spike of shooting incidents within close proximity. Administration at that time decided to remove the tents not only from this area but from other areas within the city but the community is the one who actually saw the need and donated this booth for the officers here. This is a key point in the city where we have people traverse from the Taylors Alley area into the George Street area and it is a business hub, but having the police presence here actually assists us in minimizing incidents of robbery, shootings and so forth so we welcome the assistance of the community they saw it necessary they approached the administration in Belmopan and they agreed that yes you can come assist us and they donated the booth for the officers here."
It is a 10 by 5 foot structure that looks a whole lot like a readymade tool shed, but Reyes insists that materials were bought to put it together, and they also plan to put in a few windows to improve visibility from the inside.
Sr. Supt. Reymundo Reyes, OC Eastern Division
"No they actually purchased the material and they got someone to come here and install it for the police department."
Reporter
"You said they purchased the material and built it, yes?"
Sr. Supt. Reymundo Reyes, OC Eastern Division
"Yes they bought everything, the business people, it is more than one business owner from Orange Street who saw the initiative and said they wanted to put this booth for the officers here."
Jo-
"Sir but this is a shed, this is a tool shed I've seen these at Sam's I don't think this is something that you buy material for. it comes ready made and you just pay somebody to set it up."
Sr. Supt. Reymundo Reyes, OC Eastern Division
"Well I cannot say how but like is said it is the business people who donated the structure for us."
Reporter
"Do you know how much it costs?"
Sr. Supt. Reymundo Reyes, OC Eastern Division
"No ma'am I never did asked that question."
George Price's Birthday Celebrated With PUP Pomp
Yesterday was George Price Day- marking the birthday of the National Hero in 1919.
And while it is a National holiday - the official ceremony had a very strong PUP flavor - as it coincided with the start of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the mass party that Price co-founded. Jaleeza Roberts was there:
Minister Calls For More Public Consultation On City Council Tax Increases
And what would Price - who started out his political career as a city councillor - think of the 18% increase in property tax that was recently sprung on Belize City property owners? The increase in that and trade license fees came with little to no warning and businesses are starting to feel the pinch. Fort George Area representative said that winder consultations are needed:
Henry Charles Usher, PUP Chairman
"So I think that it's something that certainly we need to have more consultations with households, with businesses in terms of looking at these different, the trade license, certainly, and the property tax. I haven't had that many complaints come to me from the area, but I know overall it's something that people are worried about, and we want to have that discussion with the mayor and with the city council team."
CDB's Largest Electricity Sector Loan To BEL
BEL has secured a 27.5 million US dollar loan and a 330,000 US dollar grant from the Caribbean Development bank for their Power 8 project. This will see 115,000 "smart meters" distributed across the country. These smart meters will allow for real-time monitoring of electricity use. And according to the CEO, it could mean that Belizeans will become the producers of their own energy. He spoke about the project today at the launch.
John Mencias, CEO, BEL
"The project will be deployed in 3 phases across the entire country of Belize. Year one, which has already started, Belize City, Placencia and Ambergris Caye. Year two, Belmopan, Ladyville, Cayo, Dangriga and Independence. And in year three, we finish off with Orange Walk, Corozal, Caye Caulker and Punta Gorda. The project implementation as I just said has been underway since last year, well before the CDB financing was arranged. We have already installed the first 20% of the meters and the supporting digital infrastructure in Belize City, Placencia and Ambergris Caye."
"We were able to arrange 27.5 million US dollars in loans and grant funds from CDB and the government of Canada's surge initiative to finance this project. The total project cost is currently estimated at 34.55 million US dollars and so BEL is making up the difference of 7.05 million US dollars in counterpart funding."
"It is in fact well established that average prices charged by BEL to its customers, even with the recent increase that's taking effect this January are lower on average than El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, lower than all the Caribbean except Dominican Republic, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago."
"AMI is the foundation of the modern grid and platform on which we will transform the way we serve and do business with our customers. It will enable the introduction of cost reflective and dynamic tariffs to rebalance energy costs by sending clear signals to consumers thus encouraging efficient energy use. Most importantly, AMI will enable the emergence of a more participatory and customer-centric energy model where consumers are empowered to take control of their energy costs and make more informed and timely decisions about their power use. But also they are able to become a part of the solution by sending energy into the grid right off their rooftops or from community solar PV projects. In this way, all Belizeans will have the opportunity to become producers of electricity and contribute to building a more sustainable energy future for Belize."
This is the largest loan that CDB has given to BEL and it is the first without a government of Belize guarantee.
Should You Invest In Hydro Belize?
And on the topic of energy, there are only a few days left to apply to become an investor in Hydro Belize. With shares going for $29 each, it's an opportunity for smaller investors to have a part in Belize's energy sector and see a healthy return.
But if you've never invested before you might be asked whether it's worth it.
Well, according to a study by Legacy Fund Limited, it's a solid opportunity. And the managing director explained you can get up to 8% a year in dividends. He spoke with us via Zoom.
Ervin Perez, Managing Director, Legacy Fund Limited
"What it is primarily, when you take a look at investment, government is looking at offering 50% of the equity it has to the public at $29 a share. From our valuation, and a valuation is just thinking about the future cash flow coming into the company, discounting that by something reasonable meaning like you're thinking okay there's an opportunity cost, there's a cost of giving away your money so you have to discount that and then trying to determine if the value of what you obtain is close to being offered, the price right. And while we would have priced the shares a little bit lower than the $29, overall our report was that it's an investment for a particular type of investor. So if you're looking for long term investment, you're not really interested in liquidity because as you know there's no secondary market in Belize where you can readily sell your shares. If you are willing to take the risk of a minority shareholder and the issue happening right now with BTL shows that being a minority shareholder sometimes can be not optimal."
"So if you look at that and you're willing to take that risk then the general assessment of the investment is that it return maybe about 8% a year in dividends in good times, might be lower in droughts, 4 or 5% but that's still better than what you earn on your savings. And even more important, if you are a Belizean living at home and you're paying BEL and electricity bill, then the investment also helps to offset the risk of an increase in tariffs right. So you know the energy distributor BEL has to purchase energy from Hydro Belize and then it's a cost plus, meaning that whatever BEL purchases the energy for, at some point it has to be recovered and so if purchasing from Hydro and Hydro Belize may increase its tariffs, that's not there in its prospectus, but you're energy bill as a consumer is gonna go up. On the other hand, if you're also an investor in the Hydro, the argument could be made that their profits will go up as well. if the tariff went up, revenues go up, if you maintain cost discipline then your profits go up and therefore their dividends which is the cash that you'll be paid as a small investor should go up."
How Safe Is A Hydro Belize Investment?
But of course there is some risk. For this project, those risks include BEL being the only buyer of the energy and climate change extending drought periods. Here's what Perez had to say about those risks.
Ervin Perez, Managing Director, Legacy Fund Limited
"All investment has risk and that has to be put on the table. As an investment, you know there's a risk of a downside. There's a risk you won't get paid any dividends, I don't think there's a risk that your shares would be valued to zero. So there's that risk you won't be paid dividends in certain years. Overall the offer and the strategy of the new ownership of the Hydro Belize which would be government in the short run, we do expect that we will have bigger private players that will come in become majority shareholders and government will exit it's majority stake. But the strategy seems to be invest enough to maintain the production of the entity and so even though we identify the risk as only having one buyer of your electricity which is BEL and then so there's a political risk there because the tariff that BEL can charge is reviewed by PUC and there's a political price if it goes too high and sometimes BEL can't adjust its tariffs which is what is happening now, BEL can't adjust its tariffs and therefore it's running some losses over the last year or two which means that in terms of cash, it is short on cash which means that if you're Hydro Belize and you're selling electricity you might have accounts receivable which is when BEL is not able to pay you for electricity it has purchased and so it runs on accounts receivable which means you as Hydro don't have cash to pay out dividends so that's a risk and then we also spoke about the risk of climate change so how conditions affect the water system used to generate the hydro, all the hydro assets on the same system so again that's concentration so that's a risk so if there's challenges with the Macal there's going to be challenges with the hydro generating the level of energy that's used but despite all of those risks there's not a lot of investment opportunities for the average small folks so we do have to give government props to provide that opportunity for average folks to invest."
Feinstein Takes Its Stake Bank Fight To UK
The battle over Stake Bank Caye continues, but now it's going to a British court.
A release from Michael and Melita Feinstein says that they have filed proceedings in the "Commercial Court of the High Court of Justice in London concerning the Stake Bank cruise port development project in Belize."
The release says that the claim is brought against Guillermo Bueso, the Honduran CEO of "Banco Atlantida" - and it, quote, "concerns his alleged conduct in relation to Atlantic Bank Limited (ABL) and the financing, control, and subsequent receivership of Stake Bank Enterprise Limited, the project company established to develop Stake Bank Island." end quote.
And while it is not clear how a British Court would have jurisdiction over this matter, a release from the Atlantic Bank says they are aware of the filing and, quote, "claims of this nature have been raised before and have consistently failed when tested through the courts."
A Wheelchair Is Like A Shoe, One Size Doesn't Fit All
And, finally tonight....some lighter news about a donation of wheelchairs.
The ones you are about to see are not just any regular wheelchairs, they are customized to accommodate users.
And roughly 500 of them were donated to the red cross thanks to an initiative made possible through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its supporters. Jomarie Lanza spoke with one of the wheelchair recipients today as she was learning how to use her new chair.
