And from debate over the Caracol Road's loan motion, we turn now to the sovereign guarantee that the Senate has approved for BTL to get a 17.5 million US dollar loan from the Taiwanese Government.
The Taiwanese Government has approved the low interest loan to the telecoms company for the upgrade of its fiber optic transmission system.
The issue is that the Taiwanese Government wants the Belize Government to guarantee the loan, in the event that BTL defaults. Again, the senators who were opposing the loan motion said that the Government needs to be making conservative financial moves at this time.
But, the UDP's temporary Senator, Herbert Panton, seized on the opportunity to heap scorn on the Opposition, by reminding them that this guarantee is nothing like the secret Accommodation Agreement that the Musa Administration gave to the Ashcroft Alliance when they owned BTL. Here's how that part of the debate went:
Mark Lizarraga - Senator for the Business Sector
"Taiwan is saying: look, I am going to lend you the money but I want a national guarantee. I won't stand only on the guarantee of BTL. Do they know something that we don't know? I agree it is a public company when it suits people. But then again, it is a private company when it suits them as well. Why was this private company not able to guarantee its own requirements?"
Valerie Woods, Senator
"What this loan motion is doing is asking for the government to guarantee a loan for what sometimes it is dubbed private sometimes it is dubbed public. Why is government required by Taiwan to guarantee this loan? What is the state of affairs of Belize Telemedia that on its own merit it cannot embark on whatever the national broadband program is? Nobody knows because it is not here. Should we not be given some measure of confidence assurance that the phone company that the government is going to guarantee $17.5 million US dollars for the national broadband project that the country does not know its extent, where it will cover, how many phases if there is a phase."
Stephen Duncan, Senator
"We have a much broader base part of our society collecting dividends from this company which is not being included in that document because that budget estimate relates to government. And the dividends mentioned in there, is over and above the tax that government collects from the company as well. So, I wouldn't want us to limit our understanding of the company to just the dividends that you see government collect because it plays a much broader role for us."
Herbert Panton, UDP Senator
"This appendix is appended to a company's loan guarantee agreement. And this appendix one is the necessary approval for Belize acting by and through its minister of finance to be its guarantor of the loan agreement, such as approval from parliament immediately. The accommodation agreement comes to mind. Not only did the accommodation agreement not have this, it did not see the light of day in this chamber. No less than the attorney general of Belize has put together a legal opinion on this guarantee. And has not only put a legal opinion, has appended it to the guarantee agreement and that forms part of that agreement. As opened and as transparent as one can possibly get."
At the end of today's Senate meeting, this motion, along with others brought by the Leader of Government business passed. Later on in the news, we'll show you other parts of the debate on other important motions.
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