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The council says it will improve predictability, transparency, accountability, and ease of administration while being revenue neutral. Sounds ambitious and here is how they outlined it:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
"I know that for some time the business community has been agitating and advocating for some measure of predictability in starting when they are doing their trade license and so after ten years Mr King it really started in 2014 when we started this exercise. I wasn't even mayor back then. In 2018 I came in and saw the bill on the table and went about trying to fine tune it but at the end of the day the landscape of business regulations can really become for business people really complex and really daunting and our goal in this exercise is to give the business community that sort or sense of greater predictability. Greater transparency. Greater accountability and ultimately the ease of doing business while certainly insulating revenue neutrality that was one or five of the core areas we wanted to ensure when we started this exercise that we made the process predictable that it was transparent it was accountable and it was ease of doing business and most importantly don't have the municipality lose any sort of revenue substantial revenue loss."

Clifford King, Director of local government
"And so we have been ranked very poorly in terms of business friendly a business friendly environment. We are endeavoring through the municipal legislations like trade licensing and we are going to work on liquor licensing by the way for those of you because these legislations are old they go back to 1966 to the Colonial years. And so our strategic interest at the ministry of local government is to work with our stakeholders to create a more enabling environment so that we have the ease and support, we advocate for the ease of doing business in this country."

"And so fundamentally what this new trade licensing regime in its spirit in its intention is to create that enabling environment so that businesses can strive and people can be employed the economy can grow and you can see the life of the city in the economy or through the economy."