Back in January of last year, the Cabinet announced that Belize was one of only two countries that were chosen by the Millennium Challenge Corporation - an independent US government foreign aid agency - to receive financial support. MCC's goal is to reduce poverty through economic growth.
The MCC will work with the Belize government for a five-year grant to fund a program called MCC compact. And, this evening, the second compact agreement was signed for US 10 million dollars.
At the signing ceremony, Prime Minister, John Briceno, explained that he believes Belize was chosen because of all the work that the government has put in to grow the economy, especially post-COVID 19. He explained that this money will be funnelled into both the education and energy sectors.
80% of the funding will be used for the education sector.
What Can The Unions Expect?
As we told you earlier in the Newscast G.O.B. and the unions will have yet another meeting tomorrow in advance of the budget.
And this evening when we caught up with Minister of the Public Service Henry Charles Usher who is part of the government negotiating team. He shared with the press what his message for the Unions will be tomorrow:
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of the Public Service
"Yeah, we expect the meeting tomorrow to be the usual length that we had in 2021, the last meeting we had two weeks ago was about 4 hours. We expect tomorrow's meeting to. Go a bit longer and as you said words have meaning so I think it is important for both sides to come to the table as we have always done, um, and. Certainly, the main issues will be discussed tomorrow. I think we are very close in terms of what each side wants to achieve. The issue of the increments is one that the government has already gone on record to say that the upcoming physical year we will be the resumption of the. Increments and so certainly that is an issue. The issue of the pension reform as well, the entire part of it is public sector reform and that is what we will be discussing."
Minister Usher On Pensions
But they'll also be discussing the hot-button issue of the Public Service's non-contributory pension. That long-running scheme has been on the chopping block for months now, with various plans thrown out as to how it might be amended.
This evening we got some clues about the particular areas in which changes will have to be made.
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of the Public Service
"I agree that there needs to be. A lot of discussion and analysis of what type of reform we are going to put in place, there are different factors that we have to consider including term, the length of service in the public service and those new cohorts coming in. So, there are really a lot of areas that you have to. Look at I think Minister Coye has explained very well publicly in terms of the areas for pension that we look at and that includes the. Retirement age, it includes the contributory scheme and certainly the replacement rater that we have to look at when it comes to. Pension. So, these are all areas that we have to discuss with the joint union team and we hope to have a very good meeting tomorrow."
