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For months now we've been reporting on the mysterious Definitive Agreement that the company named Portico signed with the former UDP minister of Economic Development and Investment. It paves the way for the Port of Magical Belize - an ascendant 350 million US dollar cruise port planned for the southern Belize District. It's got every kind of clearance necessary and the company also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. And reports say it's just days away from having enabling legislation tabled in the House of Representatives.
So it seems like a maximum green light from Belmopan - but we still don't know what's in the Definitive Agreement. It is a document that's been talked about so much - but it seems no one has a copy. In fact, in March even the PM said he hadn't seen it.
Well 7News has now obtained a leaked copy of it and, in part one of our look at the 30 page agreement, Jules Vasquez says he's never seen anything quite like it:
Despite the misspelling on the title page, the "definative" agreement makes no mistakes about giving Portico Belize some extravagant concessions - unlike any this reporter has seen before.
In a nice touch the document states it is between The Government of Belize acting by and through the Ministry of Economic Development, Petroleum, Investment, Trade and Commerce.
One whole government represented by one Minister, Erwin Contreras who also signed it in October of 2020, a month before the elections, under the heading "Government's Obligations".
It compels the government to pass legislation to exempt the developer, the contractor and their subcontractors from the payment of any and all duties and taxes in connection with the importation, purchase or procurement of capital machinery...as well as other technical services for the project.
It also exempts the developer from any income or business taxes during the term of the agreement. They're also exempted from stamp duty payable on transfers - including the transfer of land.
Government must also ensure that no third party competing with the developer within a 25 mile radius shall be given any tax benefits or duty concessions for a period of twenty five years from the Commencement date. We should note that both Port Coral and the proposed Waterloo port are within that radius.
Section 12.1.1.6 is also a doozy: it Exempts the Developer from all currency exchange control laws during the Term of the agreement.
Later on in the agreement it says that the government shall ensure that the developer is able WITHOUT RESTRICTION to purchase foreign currency.."
And it adds that the government shall ensure the availability of foreign currency for conversions....."
And 12.5.1 says " the government shall ensure that the Developer is exempt from all currency and exchange control laws during the term" - which, again is 30 years.
Government must also provide, or secure the Developer's access to, Government land (including the seabed) required for the development of the Project, such as the construction of the access road, the lying down of the corresponding utility services and the disposal of dredged material onshore;
And if those obligations weren't binding enough, government must "Incorporate the Agreement as part of the Legislation".
The next obligation is pretty standard, it allows the developer to directly collect a head tax which it will share with the government and its functionaries.
It also allows the developer to collect tolls and other charges.
Government is obligated to introduce and pass the Legislation and it must, quote, "make all reasonable and legal efforts to ensure an expedited processing of the Legislation."
We have seen evidence that such legislation already exists in draft form and has been sent to Cabinet.
The sponsors of the Cabinet paper are the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Finance..
We'll look at more of the revealing parts of that document tomorrow.
