And in news related to Foreign Affairs, the government has officially signed modifications to the Belize Compact, a $125 million USD grant agreement with the US under its Millennium Challenge Corporation, making it one of the largest grants in Belize's history. This grant will be allocated towards significant investments in education and long-term energy support.
But getting to this point required a lot of adjustment-since the terms of the grant changed after Donald Trump was elected. The energy component has been significantly reshaped to have less emphasis on renewable energy.
The Prime Minister gave us more details on the signing today.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't think it has been really a long process because when they called us in December of 2021 informing us that Belize has been chosen to be a recipient-to sign a compact with MCC-usually it is a very, very lengthy process. So when they met with us and said, 'Well, let's come up with a list of things where we believe that Belize's priority is,' and then we started to narrow it, we said, 'Listen, the two priorities that we had, one is education and the second was energy."
"I am happy that they quickly agreed on that, and so that is what we have been working on. It has been a long process in the sense that there have been a lot of consultations, especially when it comes to education-with the teachers, with the ministry, with the Ministry of Finance-and likewise with energy, trying to address the challenges we have been facing with energy. In a way, we have been a victim of... of our own success. Our economy has grown way faster than expected, so we are already consuming what was projected for 2028 and probably 2029. So I think it was a wise decision to hone into those two areas."
