Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce Hosts Validation Workshop under Consultancy “Support for Export-led Development in the Corozal District and Repurposing of the Free Zone”

Corozal Town. March 8, 2019.  To support growth in the Corozal District, the Government of Belize along with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched a Technical Cooperation Project titled “Support for Export Led Development in the Corozal District and Repurposing of the Free Zone” on 15^th March 2018.

The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce hereby announces as part of a major deliverable under this consultancy, a Validation Workshop of a “Draft Regional Economic Development Master Plan for Corozal” that looks at two main components under the consultancy: I. Free Zone review and repurposing and II. The preparation of an Economic Development Master Plan for the Corozal Region.

The study developed options for export-led development, based on selected sector opportunities, for the Corozal District, taking into consideration:

1. Capacity building and strengthening regulatory oversight of cross-border commerce;
2. Redevelopment of the free zone to include an entertainment/tourism-focused Free Zone area; and
3. A proposal to have a separate, but contiguous, industrial area focused on Agro-processing exports that would all lead to a repurposed Free Zone linked to the Corozal district. 
   

The options have been developed comprehensively and methodically to allow policy developers and the private sector to take note of the opportunities and alternatives that exist for the development of Corozal through export-led growth.

A list of several sectors was assessed against the following indicators of success: relative export strength, market demand, input intensity, and development impact to further allow comparisons across sectors to ensure sectors identified were robust to performing highly across different areas of prioritization.

The Consultancy, totaling the sum of US$141, 824.00 was executed via a Technical Cooperation administered by IDB’s Trade and Investment Division and Vivid Economics, a consultancy firm based in London. This Technical Cooperation Project is a collaboration between the Ministry of Investment Trade and Commerce through its Investment Policy and Compliance Unit and the IDB.

The workshop was held at the ITVET Conference Room in Corozal Town on today, 8^th March 2019 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Ends