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This afternoon, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Commerce Bight Marina in the town of Dangriga in the Stann Creek District. The marina has been the focus of controversy back in 2020, when the previous government awarded Recological Services Limited a 25-year contract to manage the facility. Later that year, after the Briceno government came to power, the matter was brought to parliament and the contract was cancelled. The government promised to cancel the contract and transform the site and its surroundings into a tourist center. The project has been several years in the making and today officially broke ground. According to Prime Minister John Briceno, a group of investors, including Basilio Zabane, will have to invest about fifty million dollars in the project.
Belize Prime Minister John Briceño: “While we are fully committed to opening up Business Bay, we have to make sure we have the right investors and the right plan. As he pointed out, Basilio Zabane is already involved in this business and the small professional cruise industry and has done this before, and we believe it will be easier for him to replicate this business again, but on a much larger scale, he will manage the marina here, the port, and then provide other facilities on this land, the only exception is the entire road, Business Bay Road, all of this land can also be developed into restaurants, handicraft shops, cultural areas and hotels. Look at what you have in front of you, it sells itself, you don’t need to sell a lot, this is the deepest natural harbor in Belize, so it is not difficult to get ships here. I think the difficulty is the actual investment, I heard that to upgrade it, it will take about 50 million US dollars. The place is abandoned, so I am sure you must have walked through the marina, it will take a lot of work to upgrade it to international standards.”
The Commercial Bay Terminal is a deepwater port that has been known since the 19th century. In May, the Minister responsible for Ports, Michel Chebat, submitted a bill to the House of Representatives that provides for certain tax and customs exemptions for the Southern Deepwater Port Development Company, the company that will build the Commercial Bay project. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at 2 pm today, followed by a visit to the Ready Call Center by several members of the Cabinet. At 4:30 pm, the delegation went to the site of the future Multipurpose Park in Dangriga. The park is an ambitious project that will add to the tourist attractions. The Minister of Tourism, Anthony Mahler, praised it from the beginning and was present at the event that evening. He spoke to Love News about the port and park project.
Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler: “We had a group of consultants come into the country and look around the country for the best places to build facilities like docks, ports, and so on. They saw that this area had great potential and it reminded them of a facility that they had in the Bahamas 15 years ago and they advised us not to waste this port facility. I also believe that with this investment, or with this investment and other investments that we have made in and around the town of Dangriga, it will create some energy, some burn, for people to invest and for people to make a decent living for themselves and their families.”
reporter: So I just want to ask you, Multi-Purpose Park please tell us about that and how you think that will improve the visitor experience.
Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler: “Well, I mean this is a higher level project. It will completely change the dynamic of the area, and in my opinion, if you look at this project that has been sitting idle for almost two decades, it was a waste of prime real estate. Now they are investing in it, it will have some value, and you can monetize all the area here. We are also looking at building a port facility or a terminal facility in Punta Gorda, and we are working with a branding company. So part of the growth path that we strongly believe is sustainable is in the southern area. So the Stan Creek and Toledo area.”
Regional Representative Dr. Louis Zabane has been working to promote Dangriga as a tourist destination and develop projects that will provide employment opportunities. In an interview with the media, Dr. Zabane said that the Commerce Bight terminal and multi-purpose park will create dozens of jobs for residents of the area.
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Regional Representative (Dangriga): “The reopening of the Commerce Bight port is huge. You’re going to see about 106 full-time people working there during the first three years of the construction phase. Once the construction phase is complete, there will be 60 people steadily employed, not counting those working with immigration and customs, and then the multiplier effect of those working in tourism and so forth. And then it will have an impact on the multi-purpose park. So all of that adds up to a lot of jobs for our community.”
The final item on today’s list of events is the appointment of Dr. Louis Zabane as the PUP Flag Bearer for Dangriga. His appointment meeting will be held at the Russell Chiste Auditorium at 6.30pm this evening. We will have more details on these events in our follow-up news reports.
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