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And so today the media asked Mike Singh, CEO in the Ministry of Investment Promotion if some kind of agreement, either spoken or unspoken has been given to the Puerto Azul investors. He said Puerto Azul is not even close to a green light:

Daniel Ortiz
"What should the public make from seeing your minister in France for the Puerto Azul gala event?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"I think the public has already said what they make of it. Puerto Azul is an early stage project, by no means is not at any level where any approvals have been given. I sat on the evaluation committee on the first time the project was presented and I will tell you my opinion is that some things in the project are a little bit too fantastical and as a Belizean there are some things on there that I think needs to be shaved down and my advice to them is that if you guys want to do a project in Belize I think it needs to be at a level that is acceptable to what our environment can handle, to what our culture can handle and that will give maximum benefits to Belizeans. I am not convince that the first project that I saw does that at all."

Daniel Ortiz
"Describe for us how that first project looked since you manage to see it?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"It's the same thing that you are seeing on all the media; it's a large project for development of a high end what they called a destination island including development of an airport, there is mention of fashion boutiques and high end condominiums and hotel rooms for the ultra rich. One of the concerns I had was the scale that they are putting it together in their plan. I don't how big the ultra rich community in the world is, but the infrastructure to be able to support that on a remote island would have to be quite extensive and I don't know that our ecosystem can handle that. That my opinion."

Daniel Ortiz
"Can you describe some if the parts which you think are too fantastical to be able to even fit on that particular island they are looking at?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"If you look at the aggregate of everything that there when you think about things like waste disposal, you think about the increased traffic, the idea of putting a runway on top of the reef is preposterous, I've been a diver all my life and I don't believe that that is something that is wise for environment particularly since that is the attraction that is bringing people in. There are certain things on there that needs to be downscale. I can't really go into a lot of details because it's not our job to downscale their own project, they have to do that."

Daniel Ortiz
"Even though it's at the concept stage, we have two ministers on the sub-committee for investment which has made an appearance at the gala event that they launched this program, so cant the public reasonably deduced that they have at least the concept the support?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"Well Cabinet is collective. There are 16 ministers in Cabinet. The fact that 2 ministers took the time to go visit an event where the project is being unveiled does not necessarily indicate that they have signed off on it. Those 2 ministers support development; Minister Contreras who is the Minister in our ministry who I work for he is pro-development. Minister Heredia is pro-tourism, this is a tourism project. The fact that they went to visit with the developers at the launched of the project is to me neither an indication of a general government support not an indication of any kind of sign off."

Daniel Ortiz
"But then you have 2 ministers already with an appearance that they have gotten support for the Puerto Azul project, so hasn't that kind of defeated the purpose if there is an appearance that government already supports it if it is indeed not feasible?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"You are assuming support again, why can't we turn it around to say that the fact that those ministers have been with the developers and have looked at the project more closely that they can inform us better as to the details of the project. I think there is a positive here, there is not a negative."

Duane Moody, Ch5
"Sir, we understand that....."

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"You are looking at public perception and that what you are reacting to - lets be practical."

Duane Moody, Ch5
"With this invitation that these ministers got whether or not government paid for the travelling expensive anything like that or was it all on the pockets of these investors?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"I have no knowledge of that. I can't comment on that because I was not on the trip nor was I invited."

Giovannie Brackett, reporter
"Do you think that the ministers being there had done more bad than good to this particular project before it even got out of the crib?"

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"Perhaps that is a decision for the developers would have to make - whether that was a wise move for them to invite the ministers there. In respect to the approval process, it is neither here nor there for us; it will still go through the process."

Singh added that it is not clear at this stage if the developers own the Northern 2 Caye. But whatever happens going forward - the popular pushback against this project has been strong even at this very preliminary stage. That's kind of what happened with Norwegian Cruise Line and their plan for Harvest Caye, which is currently the subject of a legal challenge.

So is it that popular sentiment is opposed to investment? Is it the tyranny of a vocal minority? Or is it that in the Facebook era, every project explodes into un-informed speculation before it gets properly ventilated? Singh says high levels of interest generate high levels of controversy:..

Mike Singh, CEO - BELTRAIDE
"Today we are seeing an unprecedented interest in development and investment in Belizean projects than a much larger scale than we've seen in the past. That is not a bad thing, that is a good sign. It means that people are paying interest in Belize and they seem to be confident in Belize's investment climate otherwise we would not have these size projects coming now. Now that being said, it means that we have to rethink the way we deal with large projects. The wrong thing for us to do is for us to decide that we will take a potential project that is large and had potential for large scale development and large scale employment and throw it out to public decision making too early because at that point you send them away and you change the business climate, so there has to be some internal investigation that happens before it gets public airing."

As for Puerto Azul's public airing, we note that it is the developers, a pair of Italian businessmen who have been publicizing it - an effort which culminated in the recent Puerto Azul Experience Night in Cannes. They boast that the project will host one thousand guests and create two thousand jobs.

Being on the Lighthouse Reef atoll, the area is considered precious and is home to a thriving and important marine ecosystem and prized commercial fishing area.