Last night we reported that bear stearns was offering to raise a 100 million US dollar loan for the government of Belize. The offer was contained in a letter sent to the prime minister and minister of finance Said Musa from Aj Mediratta, a managing director of Bear Stearns. The news came as a surprise to the minister of state in the ministry of finance jose coye who told us that he knew nothing of it and felt that the country didn't need to take on that much more debt.
Well, today to the prime minister explained that the very detailed document is still just an offer and one he's free to refuse:
Hon. Said Musa – Prime Minister
"No Sir! Absolutely Not! Bear Sterns has sent a proposal to us and I can tell you that having taken a look at it we are not interested in pursuing that one."
Jules Vasquez
Q:"Would you pursue the round-table they have proposed for the World Bank meetings in October to improve the credit profile of Belize?"
Hon. Said Musa
"I will attend whatever I can in terms of certainly improving the credit profile but also improving the whole… whatever I can do to improve the financial and economic standing of Belize when I attend the World Bank and IMF. I don't have that programmed at this time, the round table with Bear Sterns, but it may come about."
The PM spoke to us after a UNICEF event where he gave a plain spoken, free-wheeling, mostly improvised address on the issues affecting children in education and health. The prime minister discussed the long delayed national nhi rollout, which has been held up because someone has to pay the bill - which means making the tough decision to introduce a new tax:
Hon. Said Musa
"The same argument can be made for health and NHI. Can it be done without some contribution from the public? The clear answer is no. It cannot be fully implemented without some contribution from the people, some pooling of resources. So we end up in a situation where we do things perhaps not as well as we should. Not as effectively and comprehensively as we should because we don't want to take these tough decisions. I am preaching to myself now. Amen! (laughs). But it's good, it's good to, I'm sure the bishop can understand what I'm going through right now. It's called expiation."