Poised as one of the fastest growing eco-friendly destinations in Central America and the Caribbean, Belize’s popularity continues to increase not only as a prime destination for tourism, but also for investing. Its strategic location and proximity to key international markets enables multiple nodes of connectivity and time zone advantages convenient to many sectors. Apart from its renown eco-friendly tourism attractions and pristine natural resources, Belize also bolsters a hard-working, well-educated workforce with bilingual capabilities (with English being the official language followed by Spanish). Its pro-business environment, stable currency fixed at BZD$2 to USD$1, and multiple global investment and trade agreements, further enable market access like no other.
The Government of Belize (GOB) through the Ministry responsible for Investment, Trade and Commerce and the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE) continue to enable a robust and sustainable doing business environment through a cadre of investment incentive programs across six (6) priority investment sectors.
PRIORITY INVESTMENT SECTORS IN BELIZE
- Tourism and Leisure – including overnight, cruise, nautical, cultural, nature, sun & beach, leisure & entertainment, medical tourism, and destination planning.
- Agriculture and Agro-processing – including value addition of traditional and non-traditional commodities, input materials, storage, transportation, and delivery.
- Fisheries and Aquaculture – including shrimp farms, marine cage farming for queen conch and spiny lobster, fresh water cage farming, raft culture for oyster and seaweed farming, bioprospecting for cosmetics, and production of fish feed.
- Offshore Outsourcing Services – including business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology outsourcing (ITO), and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), as well as, commercial tech parks, shared services and Omni channel services.
- Sustainable Energy – including biomass energy, solar energy, hydro power, biofuels (ethanol, biodiesel, methanol), and waste to energy.
- Light Manufacturing and Logistics – including assembly of furniture, garments, biodegradable packaging materials, as well as, nautical and aviation port expansions
BELIZE INVESTMENT INCENTIVE PROGRAMS
In supporting both local and foreign investors to capitalize on the myriad of opportunities that exist, BELTRAIDE, through its technical units, also offers a host of customized business development support services. This includes guidance and support to investors seeking to benefit from the following incentives:- Fiscal Incentive Program – provides import duty and revenue replacement duty exemptions for up to 15 years on eligible items to both potential and existing investments across the priority sectors
- Designated Processing Area (DPA) Program – supports investments that engage in international trade and value addition including technology transfer, employment generation and production standards for 10 years with options for renewal. It provides import duty exemptions along with property and land tax exemptions on the designated area, ability to open foreign currency bank accounts, and work permits for up to 15% of total workers (senior management and technical), among other benefits.
- MSME Enhancement Program (MEP) – provides customs import duty waivers for a list of packaging and labeling materials in an effort to strengthen the competitiveness of eligible Micro, Small, and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Belize.
Written by BELTRAIDE for the 2020 Belize Gold Book.
Feature photo by Duarte Dellarole. All other photos © caption. Article found on page 82 of the 2020 Belize Gold Book. Read more articles from the #BelizeGoldBook below:
