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IDB President Visits Belize to Discuss Public and Private Sector Funding

IDB President Promises Post Hurricane Rebuilding Funds

And while they have an exit strategy, what about others living in the area? Yes, they are getting housing relief, but the area has no seawall, no proper drainage and is still very vulnerable.

And that's why the visit of the president of the Inter American Development Bank, Luis Aberto Moreno today is super-important.

He is here at the invitation of the Prime Minister and at a joint press briefing this afternoon, the PM said the IDB has committed to lend Belize five million us Dollars in Post disaster relief funds:�

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I raised with the president the possibility of some post Richard reconstruction financing and I am happy to tell you that those discussions have gone extremely well indeed, we have been assured that the president will personally oversee the fast tracking of an initial funding component that will help us with putting in place some mitigation efforts in the areas that have been particularly hard hit but that will not be limited to those areas. We are going to look at the drainage, the street rehabilitation, at the possibility of a sea wall in the Port Loyola area."

Luis Alberto Moreno, President IDB
"I was able to speak on the phone with Prime Minister Dean Barrow soon after the hurricane happened and one of the things that we spent some time on is basically looking at some the Prime Minister's challenges, which is not only to have an expedited line of credit but also one that would be holistic in nature and could look at some of the disaster mitigation components that are going to be needed to think of really a way to building back better which is really what you want to have in this kind of disasters and use this opportunities which are terrible for the communities so that we can do better for future."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"In terms of the post hurricane reconstruction effort the president has promised me that a team will be here in country next week so that we can actually do all the diagnostics and define the parameters, the scope of the intervention precisely and thereafter it can move with special speed."

Another 5 million US dollar project that will be funded by the IDB is the Community Action for Public Safety project which will see the construction and funding of community centers in southside neighborhoods. Moreno said that is expected to be approved first week in December:�

But the President is also here on other business. It's called the trade finance facilitation program and it is a tool for the IDB to support economic growth through the expansion of financing for international trade activities of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Moreno provided an insight

Luis Alberto Moreno, President IDB
"The Prime Minister really invited us months ago to look in a holistic way at the many challenges that the private sector in Belize has and the many possibilities that exist in the private sector of Belize. For this reason we've come with a very large group from the bank, our vice president, our regional managers who all deal in one way here and another different areas of the private sector. We also have a regional economist and we also have brought a number of academics who have studied some of the challenges that Belize has especially in its development in the private sector."

Moreno and the Prime Minister will be speakers tomorrow at a private sector forum�.

Channel 7

IDB President Commends Belize's Macro-Economic Stability and Control of Corruption

-Press Release - Belmopan- 5th, November, 2010 - President of the Inter-American Development Bank Luis Alberto Moreno has spoken favorably about Belize's economic position and its success in controlling corruption.
In his opening remarks at a symposium this morning hosted by the Belize Chamber of Commerce, the IDB President stated, "Belize entered the global recession from a position of relative macro-economic stability and came through it relatively unscathed. Although growth decelerated, the economy did NOT actually contract, and macro-economic stability was maintained. Belize continues to have one of the lowest inflation rates in all of the Western Hemisphere."
On the issue of corruption, Mr. Moreno stated, "The worldwide governance indicators that were released in the course of last month show that Belize has dramatically improved its ranking in the control of corruption. Its rise from the 47 percentile of countries in 2008 to the 57 percentile in 2009 was the sixth biggest improvement out of 207 countries that were examined."

The IDB President was in Belize for a two day visit in which he met with Prime Minister Dean Barrow, other government officials and representatives of the private sector to discuss the IDB's continued financing of development projects in Belize and other areas of funding.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Barrow yesterday, Mr. Moreno made a commitment that the IDB would assist Belize with finances for rehabilitation in the aftermath of Hurricane Richard. He assured Prime Minister Barrow that he would personally oversee the fast-tracking of an initial funding component to put in place mitigation measures in areas that have been particularly hard hit.
The IDB President left Belize this afternoon, but other senior IDB staff that accompanied him on the trip will remain in Belize over the weekend.