Minister of Rural Transformation, Oscar Requena, was a keynote speaker at the 4th Urban Economy Forum held at the World Urban Pavilion at Regent Park in Toronto, Canada. He gave his address virtually and spoke on this year's theme of "Sustainable Urban Financing," focusing on building sustainable cities and communities.
Requena's, however - who hails from an all-rural constituency - pointed out that in Belize in particular, there is an equal focus on developing the rural and urban areas. Here is a snippet of that speech:
Oscar Requena, Minister of Rural Transformation
"In my estimation and in our thinking sustainability and resiliency are two of the most significant considerations that are to be the basis of our decisions and action as they are critical to our immediate and future development. In Belize, while it is utterly important that we build urban sustainability and resiliency, our efforts are equally focused on strengthening our rural and peri-urban sectors to reduce urbanizations. We want our people to work, grow, play and develop in the places where they live. Our population estimates show that there is almost an equal split between our urban and rural population. Notwithstanding, we do demonstrate a pattern of urbanization which is a characteristic of our Caribbean small island state. Consequently, the vulnerability in the urban space continue to be worsened by the challenges associated with our inherit low coastal zones that continue to be subjected to sea level rise, informal settlements arising out of urbanization, heat street, and heavy precipitation resulting from global warming, economic conditions, and the general characteristic of most of these sites. To adapt and to mitigate these vulnerabilities, municipal governments have called to deliver improved services with the aim of enhancing all urban space, however, the limits of the financial position and fiscal space for urban governments to address these increasing challenges are significant deterrents for advancing this aim. Therefore, it is necessary that the approaches to obtaining sustainability and resiliency must be all inclusive, participatory, collaborative, evidence based, data driven, and innovative."
