The San Pedro General Hospital - it's been bandied about as a political promise for so long that it almost seems like one of those ships that will forever stay on the horizon - never coming to shore.
Well, finally, for San Pedro the ship seems to be coming in. Today in Belmopan, Prime Minister Briceño and James Hsiao, who is the General Manager of the Taiwan Overseas Engineering and Construction Company, signed a 16.8 million US dollar contract for the design, construction and equipping of a general hospital for San Pedro and Caye Caulker.
This funding is through a grant from Taiwan.
Here's what the Prime Minister had to say about delivering the funding for this major political milestone for his administration:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"This is a project that will be serving both San Pedro and Caye Caulker. We want to express the gratitude of the Belizean people, myself as Prime Minister and the government, to both you and James and well, your government, the president, for a grant of $16,678,680 US."
"That will allow us to be able to finally build a general hospital for what we refer to as the Mecca of Tourism in San Pedro, and also Caye Caulker. This is something that for many years successive governments have been talking about, about wanting to see the need and wanting to build this general hospital. What finally is coming to fruition is finally becoming a reality."
Lily Hsu, Taiwan Ambassador to Belize
"So hopefully we will soon see this beautiful hospital serve the purpose and help the people and the visitors."
