REPORT #399 September 2000
ECONOMIC ISSUES GALORE!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

CAYMAN ISLANDS IS SUING THE HYATT REGENCY HOTEL!
It seems that the hotel had collected an automatic 15% service charge ( tips) on bills they gave customers, but they never distributed the tip money to the employees. They are being sued by the Government for $1.5 million in service charges withheld.


JAMAICA LOSES ANOTHER CLOTHING FACTORY, TO HONDURAS!
The Sara Lee Corporation is moving from Montego Bay to Honduras where production and shipping costs are lower. They made T shirts and undergarments in Jamaica, Mark Hart was quoted as saying in the local Daily Observer. 400 jobs down the drain this time!


DOMINICA PROPOSES A NEW BILL ON OFFSHORE SECRECY!
Dominica has new bills in the legislature, that will make it compulsory for Offshore Banks and Companies to give information to foreign countries carrying out criminal investigations. It is not clear if criminality has to be proved first in a foreign country, or if the laws will be applied as FISHING EXPEDITIONS! Either way, this weakens the SECRECY aspect of a TAX HAVEN, which is probably the single most effective selling point for tax havens. There is no punishment in the current bills for companies that do not comply.

The War led by France, the U.K and the USA of the 29 enemy OECD war cabal, for world dominance of the economic and financial markets, in a new style of world Imperialistic Colonial extortion, are basically taking aim at the SECRECY aspects of accounts in offshore countries doing tax haven business. Dominica is a high profile war time target for the OECD, because of Russian accounts. CARICOM countries are going to have to open their own CARICOM CLEARING HOUSE bank accounts and wall plaque banks, in different non-tax haven countries, to handle CARICOM country banks that come under war attack, blacklisting or cutoff from regular correspondent banking services by the enemy new style Imperial Colonialists. So finance operations can continue in this war. There is going to have to be a constantly shifting shell game of wall plaque banks and accounts for CARICOM as a defensive strategy by CARICOM.


BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS A SUCCESSFUL TAX HAVEN!
The British Virgin Islands four commercial banks have surpassed the $1 Billion USA mark for the first time in this predatory game of fighting for world market share in the financial services pie that represents the Global Economy and Financial Markets. The OFFSHORE sector is responsible for the boost in total deposits. The deposits have increased 22.7 % over 1999 to $1.1 billion by January, 2000, some nine months ago. What it might be now is unknown? There are more than 400,000 International Businesses or IBC's registered in the British Virgin Islands says the BEACON weekly newspaper report. The islands only have 20,000 population.


BAHAMA'S STARTING TO TARGET THIS WINTER SEASON TOURIST MARKETS!
The Bahama's Ministery of Tourism hopes to attract 4 million visitors to the 700 island archipelego. By July of this year 2000, already 2.6 million had arrived. The advertising program is slated to reach 3,500 travel agents. Belize lacks the pricing structure to advertise in the quarterly Travel Agency guide books. Local operators are small guest house operations and do not understand that they must give one price to customers with a sales commission already built in the price, when bookings are made from outside agents.


BHUTAN REJECTS NEPAL'S BRAND OF TOURISM!
Bhutan has voted to restrict tourism and cater only to upscale well heeled tourists. The requirement is that a tourist spend about $220 USA per day. Bhutan wants to market it's unique culture. The mountains and more than a dozen virgin climbing peaks are closed to climbing expeditions. The capacity of the environment to absorb a large tourist transient population is severely limited, they say. Nepal on the other hand has thousands of tourists traipsing around their mountain peaks. Bhutan says Nepal is an example of a tourist industry gone wild and an example of what they do not want to become. Bhutan is afraid of what would happen to their fragile mountain scenery. The ecology might never recover in anyone's lifetime. Nepal had over a half a million visitors last year. The unspoiled people and culture is what they are selling to upscale tourists. In Nepal, the culture has all but disappeared in a wave of entrepreneurship, reminiscent of traveling by bus in Central America. None of the tourists to Bhutan had any problem with the high prices when questioned. They like seeing an unspoiled nation. The government of Bhutan is being cautious and so far, less than 20,000 people have been allowed to visit.


OF THE THREE CHINA'S, HONG KONG IS THE BEST KNOWN TO BUSINESS!
For Belizeans exploring China ties and business contacts, here are some sites. There is the Hong Kong Trade Development Council at: http://www.tdctrade.com an export promotion organization. They have an office in Miami, nearby to Belize. You can find prospective agents and distributors here.

You can also sell direct to the Hong Kong Government. Which spends about $2.8 billion USA per year with large and small suppliers from many countries. The web site for information is: http://www.info.gov.hk.

If you want to understand how Chinese business works, read the fiction book, NOBLE HOUSE by James Clavell. You will find it an extended family and long term relationship affair. You have to be a predator in the Hong Kong market, competition is fierce and the sharks are always circling.

If you want cheap labor and to set up a factory then you probably want to go to Beijing on Mainland China. They speak Mandarin there and Cantonese in Hong Kong. Different languages. Most also know English. An interesting note, is that in Hong Kong, more than 50,000 USA citizens are residents and in business as middlemen. They buy beef, milk, oranges, citrus concentrate, sugar, lumber, mahogany, rosewood, lignum vitea, etc. The Belizean Quan family have familial business contacts in Hong Kong. Many of the newer Taiwanese immigrants in Belize can provide similar services for Taiwan.


THE INTERNET PROMISES INCREASED BUSINESS AND PRODUCTIVY IN BELIZE! EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR THE END OF THE BTL MONOPOLY!
To increase productivy in Belize, we have to lower taxes, get rid of the Income Tax, make Belize a dollar economy with no exchange regulations and fees, open up to offshore Wall Plaque Banks. We have to ease the ways to invest in Belize and get rid of the politicians individual control by Ministerial Discretion and control the Cabinet functions by law. The cabinet and ministers should be forced by law to discuss things. Letting a Minister like Fonseca gamble with the countries credit card without a geographical national census on projects can be a gambling winner, or a loser's suicide. The country needs to decide policy on something like a $50 million gamble on a new set of 500 rooms on Ambergris Caye through consensus. It should not be any one individuals unilateral decision to make. Such policy making is contrary to successful development. Justice has to be clearly seperated from the Executive Branch. It has to try to be fair to all people, not just applied to the Belizean masses who are not politically connected. To build a successful society and business; justice must be blind to position, power and money. Above all it must be fair and honest. Non of this exists in Belize! This new way will lead to vigorous growth. But vigorous growth must be tempered by local populations with voting control over the cabinet. Their local voices must be heard in the policy making process and indeed their voice must control the policy. Not done by an individual cabinet member.

Belize is full of corruption. When you have a Cabinet Minister's decree system it can be no other way. It invites corruption. Under our system, corrupt people have impunity if they are in power, or connected to political power. This invites increased disrespect and criminality as a self defense mechanism. We squander our human resources this way. State owned operations are dens of corruption. Such a climate creates local insecurity and criminality.

Political Reform is the highest needed priority for Belize.


UNIVERSITY OF BELIZE IS GETTING TO BE BETTER THAN GOING TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES FOR A DEGREE!
Belize is a bargain for higher education. It costs at FIU (Florida International University) in Miami, Florida, USA $1000.75 for two courses for the semester of 12 weeks. This includes $10 for a photo I.D., $29.61 for a parking permit, $10 for a compulsory athletic fee whether you use it or not and another compulsory $44 health fee. If you wanted to take just one course for a semester, your fees would run about $547. 18 total for the month, including the compulsory fees mentioned above. All these prices are in USA currency. So you Belizean students when you consider the cost of education at the University of Belize, take this into mind. Once courses and degrees are completely available by distance learning from foreign Colleges and Universities through our local University of Belize, with special arrangements for local monitoring and tutoring, Belizean students are going to be riding high on what is relatively cheap education compared to the G7 countries. The internet has turned education around the world on it's ear.

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