Students at UB's main campus in Belmopan had a chance to directly ask the Prime Minister their burning questions today. PM Briceno was a guest lecturer on national leadership, economic development, and opportunities for Belize's future.
And after his 30 minute presentation, the floor was opened for questions. The students asked about the economy, inflation, the proposed Smart acquisition, education, and more.
But one of the messages that stood out from the PM's answers is that those gas prices that are currently causing pain across the populace? Well, buckle up because they're only going to go higher.
Here is a snippet of the PM's Q&A section.
Student
"What concrete steps are being taken to raise wages and improve the overall standard of living? Is it the same measures that you guys have previously taken, or are there new measures being implemented now that it is 2026 and prices are going up?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I think I've already answered the question, but let me quickly say once again that we do not control the cost of goods that come into the country. We import everything. And there are only certain things that we can do to, we have not raised taxes, by the way, because then we can't say, okay, I'll reduce, we raise taxes and creating that."
"We recognize the challenge with the cost of living. It's something that's affected worldwide. And I'm sorry to give you the bad news, but right now it's going to get worse because of the war in Iran."
"We have nothing to do with that. But the price of diesel has already, the fuel has gone up, and the next shipment is going to go up more, and we have no control over that. All we can do is to be able to try to get people working."
"We're looking at increasing the minimum wage to $6. When we do that, then we hope that salaries will be able to go up a little bit all around. But then government then has to be more active in its social programs where they could help, especially those that need."
Student
"I saw a report from BTL about the positive effects of this acquisition, such as infrastructure, community development, and more employment. But what would be the negative consequences on our economy for consumers and the telecommunications sector?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We have cable our companies and we started out with a small cable company and we ended up buying everybody, all the cable companies in the north, from the Hallover Bridge all the way to the free zone, because we wanted to be able to, we want that cash flow."
"Respectfully due to Jules Vasquez, who is making a lot of noise, we bought his father's cable company in Orange Walk. We paid his company, his father, $350,000 for his cable company. Do you know what we got? Nothing."
"We didn't even get one pen. But what we got is their customers. All we did is disconnect the customer from their system and put them into our system. In effect, we were buying cash flow. And that's what businesses do to be able to grow."
"But on negatives, you could say lack of competition. But the truth of the matter is that you have the Public Utilities Commission. And one of the responsibilities of the Public Utilities Commission is to be able to ensure that these utility companies do not take advantage of the public and that when they price their products, it is priced in such a way that they are not taking advantage of the consumers or their customers."
"So maybe that's about the only thing that I can see."
The lecture plus Q&A finished at about 5:00 pm and you can find a link to the entire event on the UB Facebook page.
