Excerpts from Hon Francis Fonsecas Budget Presentation 2014: This budget continues a 6 year pattern of excuses and empty rhetoric. After 6 years of U.D.P. stewardship, Belize is headed in the wrong direction and fast!! Unemployment and underemployment continue to devastate our Belizean families wreaking particular destruction on the hopes and aspirations of our youth and women. More than 30,000 Belizeans actively seeking work can’t find a job. Some 150,000 Belizeans are living on less than $5.50 per day for food under the U.D.P. Fuel costs remain at an all time high putting a beating on our farmers, commuters, fishermen, taxi operators, tour operators and our businesses. Mr. Speaker, the World Banks Ease of Doing Business Report for 2014 ranks Belize at 106 of 189 nations surveyed. This is down from 104 in 2013, so we are moving in the wrong direction. And the same report ranks Belize at 167 of 189 for ease of starting a business. The Belize economy bogged down in U.D.P. incompetence and corruption! Remember the empty, cruel boasts of 5,000 new jobs, lower GST, lower cost of living, lower fuel rates, 6% annual growth!! What a sick joke!! The Belizean economy and people are suffering Mr. Speaker, and no amount of chest beating, self-praise and bleating of pseudo – nationalism can change this harsh, sober reality!! Six years of increasing U.D.P. arrogance, waste, incompetence and corruption!! Mr. Speaker, the World Bank estimates that corruption in small developing economies accounts for a 1% to 2% loss in G.DP. growth annually. Here in Belize, corruption is eating away at the heart and soul of this U.D.P. Government. Everywhere you turn, everywhere you look there is corruption. This is why, Mr. Speaker, as we seek to grow and reform the economy, so too, must we seek to reform the way we are governed.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 03:06:24 +0000
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