But the BBA also raised the point that the NBC is a public private partnership - not a fully government owned entity. So how does Dr Zabaneh balance his role in the NBC and as the Transport Minister? Here's how he explained it.
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"Well, the development, the conception and the development of the National Bus company, resides in the Ministry of Transportation. It is that ministry which has been responsible to develop the national bus company from scratch. And so, it is also our responsibility to continue to, it's a process, as I've said, that will continue on for the next 2 or 3 years. So we also have continued responsibility with respect to bringing in the electric busses, changing the fleet to electric busses, and also with respect to the building of terminals. So remember that government, owns the majority of National Bus Company. So that responsibility, lies with the Ministry of Transportation. "
Reporter:
"But it now looks as if the Ministry of Transport is competing with independent bus owners. You all are miles ahead in terms of the amount of resources you can access."
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
"The National Bus Company has not received anything more than the facilitation to form the company. The investment of the government in the company are the terminals, as we've said before and as you know, the terminals have been in a deplorable condition for many years. So now that we are bringing it under National Bus Company, we are improving terminals and we're building planning to build new terminals. So, it's not like government is taking money out of taxpayers, pool of money to put the international bus company. On the contrary, as a shareholder in the national bus company, once the company starts to gain profitability, the people through the government will be able to receive dividends right back into government, which has never been the case before. So this is a win win for the people of Belize. In terms of the structure that we put in place."
