Economy - Belize's current state
As defined by Wikipedia, “Economic growth is the increase in the inflation-adjusted market value
of the goods and services produced by an economy over time. It is
conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic
product or GDP”. In other words, in a less complex term, economic
development is simply a measurement of countries GDP sometime refer to as national
output or GNI, however this does not tells us anything about the actual
well being of the people in the country. This is where the Economic development
plays an important role of a county. Economic development is a measurement that
focuses on the welfare of the people of a county. Similarly stated by
Wikipedia, “Economic development is the
process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social
well-being of its people”. As it is important to not only look at the
monetary or economy of a county but other indicator such as education, health,
social values and living standards of its people.
Looking at the Economic growth and development of
our county Belize, it is safe to say that Belize need to accelerate its
economic growth. “CDB says Belize’s Economic growth below regional average”, sited
from a news articles dates Wed. Feb 7th, 2018. From 2000 – 2017, our
country GDP has decrease drastically to 2.1% from that of 10.5% growth rate;
which has been provided by SIB. Of the
last report given by statician of SIB from July – September 2017 Belize’s
economy saw a 0.5% increase in all overall level of production when compared to
the same period of that of 2016. In CDB release, the Bank’s president and Chief
Economist stated that the region’s performance as a whole was far from stellar
and Belize’s economy with .5% growth
was bringing up the rear which is just about the regional average. This clearly
shows the potential we have as a country, but there are many factors that
contribute to our country not being able to grow systematically. Some of the factors
are access to finance, corruption, tax rates, transportation, customs and trade,
business licensing etc.
In December of 2017 import is at $167.2Million and export $15.7M. In doing the difference that’s a huge gap for a county like Belize. Our export might never increase our import but there’s a lot of improvement to increase export production and lower import. In the agricultural sector Belize economy depends on citrus, banana and sugar cane for export among other locally grown products such as onions, potatoes, corn, beans, rice and other type of vegetation. Many may argue that our citrus industry is declining and having face with citrus greening but that’s where our government should be looking for alternative crop. One other product that we clearly can see is a money market value is the cocoa industry.


CSME is a single enlarged economic space agreement which allows for the free trade of goods, services, person, capital and technology among the participating CSME Member States, including Belize. The CSME is an essential element of integration in the Caribbean Communities. It is intended to benefit the people of the region by providing more and better opportunities. I can elaborate on example of the other factor; however I will leave that for further class discussion.
Moving on to Belize’s Development we have seen a lot
of changes both physically and as a people, nevertheless, there is still room
for improvement in respective categories. When we look at infrastructure for
the country of Belize we are doing pretty well.
Many may argue why money is spend on roads and infrastructure but if they may
know, tourism is our number one source of income and in order for us to have
the numbers of tourist increase we need our country to look attractable and
welcoming. Our government has shown focus on our education system. There are
many contribution on their part in terms of the subsistence that have been
given to 1 and 2nd form students as well as in the infrastructure of
new building and classroom with in the country, from North to South. On the
health care system, there has been and still existing is the implementation of
NHI. Many of us have access this system and benefited.
When
we look at the employment rate of the country, information release from the
last SIB labour force survey conducted in September 2017, the national
unemployment rate for that month was 9.7%, which is a decline of 1.4% from that
of 11.1% in September 2016. Two categories that have a negative impact on our
country are Crime and teenage pregnancy. In fact, Belize has been listed as one
of the deadliest countries in the world, based on the number of murders which
occurs in this very small population of almost 390,000 people. In
a press release dated December 29, 2017 Police
Commissioner Allen Whylie told the media, and I quote, “Well, we had an upsurge
in terms of gang rivalry, as well as inter-gang rivalry fuelled by the fight
over turf for the sale of drugs.” Mr. Whylie believes the majority of the
incidents were gang-related.
In conclusion Belize is a very diverse country and is rich in
terms of heritage, culture, resources, etc. Everyone has a part to play, and
our political leaders are the ones to ensure that as a country we are growing,
both in Development and Economically.
Reference:
Belize Electricity Limited (n.d.). BEL annual report. Retrieved from: http://www.bel.com.bz/annual_reports.aspx
Channel 7news. (2018) Potato and onion farmers call out for protection. Retrieved from:
Chenery, H. and A. Strout. (1966). Foreign Assistance and Economic Development. American Economic Review.
Government of Belize. (2010). Country Poverty Assessment 2009. Belmopan, Belize: Retrieved from: http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=43640&frmsrch=1
Statistical Institute
of Belize (n.d.) Belize’s high murder
rate should not remain status. Retrieved from: http://sib.org.bz/
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