Before we had learned about the Government’s plan to extend the State of Emergency by 2 months, we got a chance to speak this morning with Tracy Taegar-Panton, the Minister of State with responsibility for Investment, Trade, and Commerce. The press took that the opportunity to ask about a possible timeline for a return to normalcy.
The Cabinet Minister was asked about when Belizeans could expect to see the Government maybe slightly re-opening the shuttered economy. She said that the country is maintaining this holding pattern for at least a few more weeks. Here’s our conversation with her on that topic:
Hon. Tracy Taegar Panton - Minister of State, Investment, Trade And Commerce
"I think that reopening the economy is a little bit premature. And while we do have 2 cases that have recovered, as Dr. Manzanero said, we don’t have a curve. I do believe that at our meeting next week, we hope to relax some of the measures that are now in place so that there can be more movement in the economy. But, there won’t be any opening of any borders, or the airport, or anything like that. It is still - we feel that the public health officials have really done a good job. Certainly, we have not shut down the productive sector. We have kept the productive sector open, and we are speaking to the markets where we can export the excess. What we can use in the government programs, we will be using, but I think it’s still a couple of weeks ahead of us before we can say we have reopened the economy, so to speak."
Email
Print