A major multi-million dollar contract to pave 16 very important miles of road up north was signed today at the offices of the Ministry of Economic development. The funds come from the European Union's AMS 2008 Sugar Belt Road Rehabilitation Project - Phase 2, which will see the rehabilitation of the Orange Walk Town to Progresso road. The stretch of road is the key to the development and growth of the Tourism industry, but especially to cane farmers and those in the Agriculture sector. Here's more...
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez - Minister of Works
"We want to state for the record that this is a very important road in the network in the north. I have been anticipating this for years, but its here now. And I think this is a very important economic loupe for the Northern Districts, of which there will be alive now. I think they were dying, especially for this year. I commented to Mr. Pascasio last year that if I had the choice and the will, I think the first road in this sugar accompany measures would be this road."
Cosimo Lamberti - Fossati - Head. European Tech. Support Ofc.
"For the European Union, this is a very exciting moment decided in discussion with the Government of Belize to invest quite a lot in infrastructures up north. Almost two-thirds of the funds available under the 1st phase of the AMS, which is, depending exchange rates, around $70 million Belize, a veneer mark for roads. We are, as the Minister was saying, at the 1st phase of unpaved roads, because they were urgently needed to be upgraded immediately. And now we are moving to a new phase, and it's a phase of paved roads. It is a completely different scenario that we are at this phase now. We already speaking with the people up north; a lot of them are very happy about the first batch of roads. I'm sure they will be even happier about the second phase."
The 12.6 million Belize dollar contract was granted to the Bella Vista Development Company Limited of Javier Berbey, and Lopez Equipment Limited. The overall objective of the AMS 2008 programme is to contribute to poverty reduction and improve the standard of living for sugar dependent communities along Northern Belize.
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