ALBERT CONSTITUENCY CONSTITUENCY

LAKE

INDEPENDENCE
Mahogany Street Telephone

Yarborough Road, Belize City Extension Telephone 207-1600 202-4896 Email: vision_belize@yahoo.com

Email: cordelhyde@yahoo.com

PRESS RELEASE July 1, 2011 --- The decision by the Government to re-nationalize Belize Telemedia Ltd. is in the overriding national interest of Belize and its citizens. The alternative is to surrender control and profits of the telecommunications industry AND still pay inestimable compensation and damages to the so-called Ashcroft Alliance. This time, though, the Government must get it right; the nation, and particularly the BTL employees, as well as the climate for business and investment cannot afford another bungling of the process. The public is losing its patience, business losing its buoyancy. The companys history makes clear that the matter of control of BTL, and the wider telecommunications sector is not about the rule of law. Its about the rule of money. Had the rule of BTL by-laws not been subverted by the previous owners in the initial instance, no investor would have exceeded a 25% shareholding, while Social Security, on behalf of the workers, and the thousands of individual Belizean shareholders would have continued to collect generous dividends. Those dividends stayed at home, as they should. As part of the re-nationalization process, the Government must give special priority to the conditions of service for BTL employees, including shares for the workers in the company. And the Government should amend the Belize Constitution so that the major utilities including water, electricity and telephone are majority owned and controlled by the Government and people of Belize. Finally, the UDP administration cannot ignore the damage which this dispute is inflicting upon the confidence of the business stakeholders. A myopic and subversive campaign, at home and abroad, to torture the Belizean economy and its body politic into submission has had destabilizing effects. The concerns of the Chamber and other social partners are real; these must be addressed by the Government through engagement and good faith. In so many other ways, this administration has fallen short of reasonable expectations, above all in the areas of jobs, crime, social intervention and infrastructural investment. The PUP has fittingly called upon the government time and again to focus and deliver on its manifesto pledges of growth, progress and equity. Without this performance, the voters will surely reject a renewal of the UDPs national mandate to govern. Mark A. Espat, Area Representative Cordel L. Hyde, Area Representative

PUP Senior Deputy Leader END

PUP Senior Deputy Leader