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Posted By: Marty Why the Caye Chapel Deal went sour - 05/05/13 11:07 AM
Prime Minister Dean Barrow was careful not to shove his foot in his mouth when he discussed the Caye Chapel deal that sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Barrow refused to say exactly why a million dollar investment plan went belly-up, and only said that the "Qataris seemed to have gone cold". The BELIZE TIMES had reported from January 2013 that the deal had gone sour, and we exposed the reason it did.

The blame lies squarely on the UDP Minister involved in the deal, who seemed to think he was playing monopoly with real world investors. What really took place was that the Qatari group of investors smelt a rat and pulled out. The UDP Minister sold the Qatari investors a development plan which belonged to a Canadian Group, potentially opening a can of legal worms.

The Canadian Group had developed the plan with a Sheridan Hotel in mind. The Minister went to Qatar with the same plan on hand, and sold the plan to the Qatari Group for a handsome fee with the Four Seasons Hotel chain proposed as the developers of the project expansion.

When the Prime Minister boasted publicly in September 2012 that a Caye Chapel deal with multi-millionaires from Qatar was coming soon, the Canadian Group realized they had been taken for a ride. The Qatari investors reportedly backed out for fear of buying a law suit shortly after. How shameless for an entire Government to have this kind of reputation on the global market.

This time the Prime Minister is claiming they have new investors for Caye Chapel. He once more said the plan is for a Four Seasons Hotel, so we wonder who fell for the trap this time. It's only a matter of time before we find out.

The Belize Times
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