The situation at the Port of Belize is one of the most vexing issues for the Briceno Administration. The Port urgently requires investment and upgrading - but the Ashcroft Alliance which owns and operates it says it cannot expand the bulk cargo facility until and unless the Cruise Port element is approved. That has been twice rejected - and so, it's a standoff - the result of which is that the Port facilities remain outdated and inefficient - which slows down the entire process of cargo handling.
That's why government has considered nationalizing the Port - which, according to its owners, is saddled with debts to Ashcroft Allied companies.
Today, Acting Prime Minister Cordel Hyde spoke quite candidly about government's options and its imperatives:
Reporter
"The boledo has been nationalize and there is the call at least by stevedores to nationalize the port and then questions are raised by those who are managing the port, are a good corporate citizen. You have an issue with the tribunals border that PBL is floating and the government seems to be holding back its hand."
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Lands
"We should consider very seriously returning the port to the people of Belize. I think that is the only way you'll get to restore some sort of civility and some sort of decency and some sort of modernity to the port."
"The truth of the matter is that nothing has done at that place. Absolutely nothing has been done to improve that place and every time you hear about the port, all you hear about is discord and decisiveness and animosity. At some point in time we're going to have to figure out what it is that we are doing and what it is that we are about, because my sense is that those owners of the port whether it's a receivership of whether it's a port or ownership, those persons consider the stevedores to mere chattels."
"A self-respecting government cannot subscribe to that thought, because how we treat the stevedores, how we allow the stevedores to be treated is a reflection of what we think we are and who we are and how we want to be treated in this global age of free trade. So we have to do more. We have to get it right. What more we have to do, we'll have to figure that out and if it has to be that we have to take over the port, then we should, because we've been going at it for way too long."
Reporter
"Sir, that's a very loaded statement and more so seems like a very expensive statement, because Mr. Ashcroft will not let go of that port just like that."
Cordel Hyde, Minister Of Lands
"Belize City is a major city. I don't want my colleagues across the country to get upset, but this is the New York city of Belize and we don't have a port that's worthy of being called a port. You look at that place? You see what's there? and these people are not losing money. Don't come and tell me they are losing money, because Mr. Ashcroft is not in the business of losing money. They are making money. How much money they are making? nobody knows, because you can't get to see. But some sort of investigation, some sort of determination has to be made and you're right, we have to be responsible, because the last time we went down a road and nationalize something from this man, it costed us 570 million dollars for a phone company that was valued at 100 million dollars."
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