Senator Courtenay answered one of the main questions asked by the senators why the rush to ratify? He noted Belize's massive debt as a main driver. He also mentioned again that this convention was not the PUP's doing but rather one that they inherited.
Hon. Eamon Courtenay - Senator "That negotiation is something began with the UDP administration, inherited by the current administration, which we perceive that if it is concluded is in the public interest. This is not something that started with the current administration, it is something that predated our coming to office and it is important to put in context where we are. The fact of the matter is madam president and if you go back to 1998 when the PUP was then brought into government, the public debt stood at 560 million. When the UDP came to power in 2008, 10 years later, it stood at 2 billion, an approximate addition of 1.5 billion. The debt stock today is more that 4.2 billion, more than 4.2 billion. The debt to GDP ratio is approximately 135%, best practice 60-65%, we are more than double that. The domestic debt owed by the government of Belize to banks in Belize and to the Central Bank madam president, move from 300 million in 2008 to 1.3 billion dollars today. The simple point I seek to make is that regardless of whether you say it's PUP or UDP, these facts are the objective facts that we as a nation are confronted with. The negotiations that we are involved in which begun, I repeat, which were begun under the previous administration is designed to address the urgent crisis that this government, that this country faces in meeting its debt obligation. I repeat, we are here now because the negotiations are the point where the counterparties are saying there was obligation to ratify, we need it for this transaction to move forward."
And Senator Osmany Salas was on his side. He too believes that the debt needs to be lessened by any means necessary. But he also noted that he too has confirmed that the ratification process began during the UDP's administration.
Osmany Salas - Senator "I had no problem, no doubt in my mind that this motion to authorize resolution of the New York convention on arbitral awards needed to be supported. I was able to confirm from a previous high level government official that indeed as Senator Courtenay said in his remarks, this process started under the previous administration as part of the process to set up debt relief for conservation mechanism. So anything that would contribute to shaving off our debt which we heard today is at 5.5 billion dollars, I will support, because we are in a huge hole and we need to be, as I said in my remarks, as creative as we can to bring this debt down."
Jules Vasquez "Should the conservation committee be consulted when the government decides in its executive prerogative to leverage the value of Belize's natural environment for debt which may have been ill gotten?"
Osmany Salas "Look, consultation has happened and I shouldn't and I can't go into details because it is a highly sensitive process of negotiation and I've been made to understand and I have no reason to doubt that we risk losing that opportunity. And I can't say more because as I told you, I haven't been privy to the details."
