Dangriga starts road to upgraded Commerce Bight Port

Published by BBNTEAM at August 11, 2024

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Posted: Sunday, August 11, 2024. 9:08 am CST.

By Aaron Humes: Belize’s second major port in the South, long neglected and subject to litigation over its future, now confronts that future head on.

The Southern Deep Port Development Limited public private partnership (PPP) broke ground Friday afternoon with a $50 million investment in the Commerce Bight Port to convert it into a pocket cruise port – serving smaller cruise ships and yachts. It follows legislation passed in the National Assembly to enable the PPP to proceed.

Prime Minister John Briceño said this project has literally been years in the making: “It took a long time. They’ve been working on this project probably from before the elections, because they know that it was a promise that we have been making since 2006 that we’re going to open the Commerce Bight. But despite the fact that we were totally committed to opening up the Commerce Bight, we had to make sure that we have the right investors and the right plan. Bascilio Zabaneh, as he pointed out, has already been in this type of business and the small, specialized cruise industry.”

Zabaneh, first cousin to area representative Dr Louis Zabaneh, is expected to put his expertise into redeveloping the access road as well to accommodate restaurants, artisan shops, areas of culture and hotels, per the Prime Minister, who added, “Look at what’s in front of you. It sells itself. It doesn’t need a lot to sell. And this is the deepest natural port that Belize have. So to get the ships here would not be difficult. I think the difficulty is the actual investment.”

Dr. Zabaneh detailed the partnership and deliverables: “In this particular case there’s a 20-80 split government having 20 percent and the private investors having 80 percent and it’s for 30 years where they get benefits, duty exemptions etc. during the construction phase of the project and so that has been necessary to attract the private investors to put down their resources and now government has the asset that now is in use realizing returns that comes back to the people of Belize in terms of taxes on those visitors that come in et cetera.”

He denied involvement by other family members and pointed out that Bascilio Zabaneh is already the largest employer in Dangriga and hopes through this project to employ more.

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