Belize and Guatemala Discuss Path to Economic Resilience
Belize is pushing forward on the path to economic resilience and it’s doing so in lockstep with its Central American neighbors. The country recently joined regional leaders at the Fifty-sixth Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Finance, which includes Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. This year’s meeting took place in the historic city of Antigua Guatemala, where top finance officials gathered to tackle some big issues, from improving policy coordination to breaking down trade barriers and investing in infrastructure that connects our countries more efficiently. Representing Belize was Carlos Pol, CEO in the Ministry of Economic Transformation. He’s got the details on what was discussed and what it means for Belize’s role in shaping the region’s economic future.

Carlos Pol
Carlos Pol, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Economic Transformation
“I was part of the delegation that was led by Minister Christopher Coye, who’s the minister of state in the Ministry of Finance. We attended the COSEFIN, the Council for the Minister of Finance. And while being there because we have the representative from SiCa countries, we had opportunity to have a bilateral with the Minister of Finance of Guatemala. And Coye was able to bring four, five points of interest to Belize. So we just expanding on it and he agreed to discuss it with his president because he was just there as the minister of finance. But the points we discussed was at more at the national level.”
Reporter
“Security- in what regard? How can we collaborate with Guatemala there?”
Carlos Pol
“We share borders with Guatemala, both at the Western border and then at the Southern, which is informal. Security will always be an issue once you share a border within the country. So it was just part of the discussion. There was not much further discussion on that because it was just a topic that was introduced.”
Reporter
“So there were not concrete outcomes yet. Do they have to go back to their ministers?”
Carlos Pol
“That’s correct. No, there was no concrete actions agreed. It was just points that we had wanted to discuss with Guatemala and we presented to them, they agreed to look at it and come back to us.”
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