And while there were few highlights in the budgetary review and the preview of a year that will be marked by a tax increase, the PM said government remains committed to alleviating pressures on the poorest of the poor.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"In the context of the limited resources available to us and based on the information from the two previous year's budget consultation processes, we will continue to emphasize education, health, and physical infrastructure. We believe the progress already made in all three areas is undeniable and of that we are immensely proud.
The greatest emphasis will be on poverty reduction and social protection with programs aimed at alleviating poverty and providing a safety net for the marginalized and the disadvantaged. Let me therefore the larger of these new social sector and poverty alleviation programs. The first is a conditional cash transfer program. This is being funded with $4 million from local resources and will target the deprived and disadvantaged in both urban and rural areas. Again we will look particularly at youth and single mothers. The program will give cash in return for the beneficiaries engaging in activities such as immunization, school attendance and health and family education. We have every expectation, every confidence that this initial $4 million will be boosted by assistance from the World Bank who has already indicated their interest in helping with this program. So this is only an initial $4 million.
Then Mr. Speaker there will be a food assistance program with an initial $1 million to provide at a subsidize cost basic food items to the elderly, poor, and marginalized and to single mothers and their children. We'd have to start this as an apprenticeship program with the $1 million and we will locate it on the southside of Belize City, that is where the project will take place.
Next Mr. Speaker, we will reactivate a countrywide apprenticeship program with another $1 million. This was first successfully done under the 1984 UDP government and will see us pay young people to learn a practical trade by way of apprenticeship to skilled persons.
I am determined therefore that this democracy, this economy will be vindicated by the open, honest, caring, husbandry of the UDP. At a particularly difficult juncture of this administration, I want to thank the people for their understanding. I and the UDP to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, continue to do the very best we know how, the very best we can, and we mean to keep doing it until the end."
The budget speech took just about two hours to deliver, the longest that we've seen in 16 years of covering the event. Read the entire presentation.
