Belize

On behalf of the Government and the people of Belize, it is with great pleasure that I congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. I would also like to take this opportunity to register Belize’s thanks to your predecessor, our own son of Caribbean soil, Mr. John Ashe, who performed his duties superbly this past year and leaves the Organization a legacy of lasting value. Mr. President, your chosen theme for this year’s session, “Delivering on and implementing a transformative post-2015 development agenda”, is ambitious, hopeful and challenging, and Belize commends you on its selection. In the next 12 months, we will closely monitor and contribute to its crafting and evolution. The stated goal of the new agenda is to promote sustained and inclusive economic growth, safeguard the future of our planet and lead to the achievement of sustainable development, with the eradication of poverty and hunger at its core. Belize views those outcomes as more than aspirational. For us they are imperatives. Failure to attain them will have dire consequences for our nation and people. They call for a transformative mobilization of our societies at the organic level. For that to happen, we must inspire and equip every actor in our societies with the requisite tools for tackling their responsibilities and partaking in the dividends of sustainable economic growth with equity and social justice. The experiences we have had in seeking to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, however, make us less than sanguine that we will have more success with the post-2015 development agenda than we have had in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. We are mindful that the support that some developed Member States pledged to provide for our efforts with the Millennium Development Goals did not materialize in the amounts that were pledged and needed. On the whole, small countries like my own are disadvantaged by their lack of the resources and human, financial, scientific and technological capacities that are prerequisites for succeeding with such ambitious and complex initiatives. Without cooperation and support for addressing those needs from the developed States Members of the United Nations and other multilateral agencies and, crucially, through reform of the policies of the international financial institutions, Belize’s attainment of the post-2015 development agenda will be severely hampered. Looking to the future, Belize welcomes and supports the Assembly’s adoption at its sixty- eighth session of resolution 68/304, “Towards the establishment of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes”, and hopes it will result in a robust multilateral treaty that will increase the efficiency, stability and predictability of the international financial system. In the wake of the world’s financial meltdown in 2008 and the many disasters that have occurred around the world over the past six years, necessitating large outlays of donor funding to assist the victims of such disasters, there are unmistakable and troubling indications of donor fatigue and a tendency towards isolationism and self- centredness in our global environment, a trend that does not augur well for financing the post-2015 development agenda. Belize nonetheless remains cautiously optimistic. We are encouraged by the pilgrimage to this Hall over the past week of world leaders from nations large and small, friends and foes, allies and enemies. Each spoke from this very rostrum, and each in essence voluntarily reaffirmed the conviction of their respective countries that collective action under these United Nations offers our world the only true hope of dealing successfully with the myriad problems currently afflicting mankind, whether climate change, the dreaded Ebola virus, religious fanaticism, or persistent poverty and underdevelopment. Of those maladies, Belize regards climate change as the most pernicious. While a global consensus seems to have finally been reached as to the causes, as well as the cure, for this apocalyptic phenomenon, the political will of the major emitters to take immediate, concerted and decisive action to combat it is still absent. Indeed, just as our international community was grievously dilatory in taking prompt collective action to prevent the genocidal massacre in Rwanda or the current spread of the Ebola virus in Africa, so the major emitters are being dilatory in confronting the challenges of climate change. It is evident that the threats that epidemics, pandemics and terrorism pose to our planet and humankind pale into insignificance when compared to the existential threats of climate change. Furthermore, it is equally evident that it would not be hyperbole to opine that time is not on our side. Horrendous devastation — caused by extreme droughts, huge conflagrations in our forests, intense rainfall, floods, hurricanes, melting snowcaps, warming seas and sea-level rises, and an awful and frightening increase in pestilence and diseases — is already occurring around the world. Among other things, my own country, Belize, is already experiencing coral bleaching, coastal erosion and flooding, and it is forecast that next year the entire country will be visited by severe drought. The cost of mitigating the damage that is already being done to my country and of adapting to climate change is prohibitive. It is time for the large competing emitters to put aside their mutual suspicion and commit to capping global warming at 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. While my country appreciates the pledges that have already been made to the Green Climate Fund, the amount of money needed to address global warming is exponentially larger. We do, however, remain optimistic that a robust climate change agreement will be signed in Paris in 2015. The development and security needs of nations large and small in this era of globalization have hastened the imperative of regional integration. Indeed, today it is virtually impossible for any nation to function successfully on its own in any sphere of activity. In my own country’s case, the measure of development and security we have enjoyed over the past 33 years, since gaining independence, must be credited in large part to the good relations we continue to have with our partners in the various regional integration groupings to which we belong and the excellent cooperation programmes we share with our bilateral and multilateral partners, prominent among which are the various agencies of the United Nations. However, even as we acknowledge with gratitude the tremendous contributions of our partners to our nation’s security and development, our Government is ever mindful that the primary responsibility for it rests with our Government and people. In that conviction, and given our limited resources, our Government has had to prioritize its areas of intervention. It has concentrated on providing our nation’s basic needs — security, housing, education, health care, employment and wealth generation. Highest on that list of priorities is the importance of safeguarding our country’s security and territorial integrity. Successive Belizean Governments have invested heavily in efforts to bring about a peaceful resolution of the Guatemalan territorial claim over our country. Our Government is unalterably wedded to the peaceful resolution of this claim by adjudication at the International Court of Justice. We have enlisted the support of all our international friends and partners for that decision, and the Guatemalan Government is also committed, through the Special Agreement of 2008, to the resolution of the claim by the International Court of Justice. We are convinced that wars and rumours of war and any kind of international conflict will only bring grief and cause pain, hardship and devastation. That is why we keep working assiduously with our neighbours in the region to cement friendly, peaceful, collaborative and productive relations in order to achieve development for our people. Belize is very pleased by the recent designation by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States of our entire region as a zone of peace. We also welcome your own call, Mr. President, for the intensification of efforts towards the peaceful settlement of disputes. Domestically, Belize has enjoyed uninterrupted peace and harmony for the past 33 years. Our Government acts with alacrity and sensitivity to defuse any situation that has the potential for civil strife and disorder, and we invest substantially in our security forces, in terms of both capacity-building and equipment and transportation. In our quest for wealth generation, job creation and the attainment of sustainable development, Belize is pursuing, inter alia, the prescriptions articulated in our Horizon 2030 national development plan. In that regard, our Government is working in close concert with economic development experts from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and other institutions. Among the initiatives we are pursuing is a comprehensive programme of infrastructure works throughout our country, which includes the upgrading and expanding of major highways; the paving of streets in cities and towns; the installation of new drains in flood-prone areas; and the construction and upgrading of sporting stadiums and recreational community buildings. Those programmes are being executed at a total cost of $100 million. Thanks to the collaboration of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the tremendous support we receive through the Petrocaribe initiative, our Government has been able to invest in infrastructure and social programmes to the benefit of all our citizens. Our Government is cognizant of the importance of good infrastructure to our economic development. Belize is a major exporter of primary products. All our agri-products are transported by road from the farms to the factories and then to the sea ports for export. The aquaculture products and petroleum products we produce are also transported by road to our seaports. All our archaeological sites and many of our tourist resorts are also only accessible by road. It is the expectation of our Government that, with the enhancement of our network of streets and roads, our country will become more attractive to both residents and foreigners, be they tourists or investors, and that this will translate into a rapid expansion in productivity, economic growth and wealth generation. With a view to ensuring that as many Belizean workers as possible obtain employment in the infrastructure works being carried out, the Government has requested all contractors who successfully bid for the works to utilize manual labour wherever it is feasible to do so. The works are providing employment for many Belizean youth, both male and female. As a further initiative to stimulate economic development, our Government inaugurated the very first National Bank of Belize one year ago. The Bank started out modestly. It commenced operations by providing loans primarily to finance the acquisition of homes for middle-class Belizeans. Though the Bank is limited in its offerings, its establishment has resulted in an immediate and dramatic reduction of the interest rates being charged by commercial banks in the country on similar loans. That is a welcome development and a goal that our Government had tried for many years to achieve without success. The new Bank is rapidly building up its customer base and has now started to accept deposits. The prospect for young employed Belizeans to own their own homes at affordable mortgages is now greatly increased. Very many Belizeans are already landed property owners, thanks to an ongoing programme by successive Governments to make land available to them at minimal costs. Our Government is also aggressively promoting foreign direct investment. We have successfully attracted investment in petroleum extraction, agribusiness, renewable energy, tourism and business processes outsourcing. On our Independence Day, 21 September 1981, Belize inherited an educational system that was designed to educate citizens for the needs of a remote colonial outpost in the industrial age, the primary economic activity of which was the export of timber and sugar. We have since been making strenuous efforts to transform that system into one capable of satisfying the needs of an independent nation in this, the twenty-first century and the information age. That is proving to be a task fraught with great difficulty. It is also an exceedingly expensive one. Our Government currently spends 26 per cent of our national budget on the education sector. However, that is not nearly enough to cover the cost of the training and education needs of our young nation. We appreciate, however, that the quality of our workforce will be a great determinant in our future development, and that we must therefore do all in our power to make our workforce the very best it can be regardless of the cost and without heeding the sacrifices we will undoubtedly have to make. To that end, our Government is engaged in a number of initiatives aimed at training and educating our population. Among those is a comprehensive teacher training and certification programme. We are resolved to have only teachers trained in pedagogy and in the various subject areas that they are expected to teach in our classrooms. Simultaneously, we are assiduously expanding our education coverage from the pre-primary to the tertiary levels. Indeed, more young people today than at any other time in the history of our nation can afford to obtain an education and can find space in an educational institution near their homes. We are also placing increasing emphasis on vocational and technical education and training and on the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We are in the planning stage for a new institute of science and technology, and we are expanding the presence of centres for employment training across the country. Because we possess only two young universities, we make strenuous efforts to gain access to universities and other advanced educational institutions abroad for those of our students who successfully attain the matriculation requirements for entry into those institutions. We have been very successful in that initiative. The vast majority of our students attend those universities on scholarships, thanks to the generosity of our cooperation partners. Every Belizean student, male and female, who attains the requisite matriculation requirement has an equal opportunity to win a scholarship. Current data indicate that our female students are much more successful at winning scholarships than their male counterparts. Our initiatives in the education sector are contributing greatly to the increase in the competence of our workforce at every level, thereby enabling it to produce goods and services that are competitive in the world markets. In order to continue our efforts in that regard, we will need the continued support of the United Nations and its formidable network. Belize currently spends over 13 per cent of the national budget on the health sector. We seek to develop and maintain a healthy and productive population. To that end, our Government is expanding school food programmes countrywide and programmes that allow parents of low-income families to purchase food items at concessionary rates. We know that regular, balanced meals are vital to the health of our population and that it is much less expensive to keep our population healthy than it is to cure it when it is ill. We continue to strengthen our primary health-care network. We continuously upgrade facilities in our hospital and clinics with modern diagnostic equipment. Our flagship public hospital is now benefiting from a significant technological upgrade. We also recently inaugurated a brand-new neonatal wing at that hospital. For the first time in our country’s history, a state-of- the-art facility to cater exclusively to the health needs of our physically challenged children has been built. This facility is the brainchild of the wife of our Prime Minister, who serves as a Special Envoy for Women and Children in Belize. She spearheaded both the raising of the finances for its construction and the supervision of its construction. We take this opportunity also to applaud the efforts of our Special Envoy who, just a few days ago, hosted one of the largest gatherings of First Ladies and Spouses of Heads of State and Government on the subject of the empowerment of women and girls, here at the United Nations. That special event was a universal call to action on the financial health of women and girls based on the Beijing Platform for Action. We call on all Governments and international organizations to support that worthy cause. Belize expanded the coverage of our health insurance scheme in the last budget year and, through our cooperation agreement with the Republic of Cuba, we are significantly increasing the number of our health-care personnel. Indeed, only some three weeks ago we welcomed a contingent of some 35 newly trained Belizean doctors — the largest contingent of doctors ever to return to our country in a single year. Our citizens are our nation’s most valuable resource. We are resolved to invest in them, to enhance their competences and to ameliorate the quality of life of each and every one of them. The victims of global strife and global tragedies are invariably human beings. The United Nations was founded on the determination that no other generation would have to suffer the scourge of war, which we all know brings nothing but death, destruction and sorrow to humankind. Our compact is to promote and protect fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person — all human persons of all nations, large and small. The devastating Ebola virus is increasing exponentially and frighteningly. While we are disappointed that international health agencies did not respond more vigorously and with greater alacrity to the Ebola outbreak many months ago, Belize welcomes the Secretary-General’s United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. Belize endorses without reservation the call for the Republic of Taiwan to be permitted to participate in the specialized agencies of the United Nations. In this modern day and age, it is incomprehensible that we should want to deny ourselves the benefit of their expertise in dealing with global issues. If we are to remain true to the principle of inclusion as enshrined in our Charter and as promoted in the post-2015 development agenda, we must continue to advocate for the right of the Sahrawi people for self- determination. The indiscriminate killing, maiming and destruction recently meted out to innocent Palestinian civilians, especially helpless women and children, and their possessions, were an affront to decency, morality and humanity. We reiterate our support for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by diplomatic means and for the coexistence of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine in peace and security in their respective pre-1967 international borders, as recognized by the international community. Belize is convinced that any discussion of a future development agenda must include the removal of unilateral harmful practices that stifle and stagnate development, wherever they occur. In that respect, we join the rest of the international community in calling for an end to the anachronistic embargo against Cuba. Belize recognizes that foremost among our development priorities is to ensure the sustainability of the environment, in keeping with our flagship status as a haven for democracy, the promotion and protection of human rights and environmental conservation. We embrace the principle that economic growth should not come at any cost. However, neither should our people have to forgo development to protect the natural environment. We firmly believe that it is a false dichotomy to pit development against the environment. That is why we fully welcome and embrace the principle of sustainable development. Our future and the world’s depend on the entire globe embracing the sustainable development approach.