Belize Systematic Country Diagnostic
Belize has a rich history that dates back thousands of years. The country was first inhabited by the Mayans with records of their presence dating from 1500 BC. The first recorded European settlement was established circa 1638 by the British who cal...
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/02/25875161/belize-systematic-country-diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23953 |
| Summary: | Belize has a rich history that dates
back thousands of years. The country was first inhabited by
the Mayans with records of their presence dating from 1500
BC. The first recorded European settlement was established
circa 1638 by the British who called the country the Colony
of British Honduras. The official name of the territory was
changed from British Honduras to Belize in June 1973, and
full independence was granted on September 21, 1981. There
were several obstacles in the path toward independence, as
illustrated by Guatemala's long-standing claim to the
entire territory. It was only in November 1980, after
several frustrated negotiations with Guatemala that Belizean
diplomacy managed to obtain international support that led
to the United Nations passing of a resolution that demanded
the independence of Belize, but it was only in 1992 that
Guatemala formally recognized Belize’s independence. After
independence, Belize successfully implemented a development
strategy which emphasized economic diversification and
private sector development at a time where the terms of
trade were favorable to the country. As a small, open
economy, that is also extremely vulnerable to climate change
and natural disasters, Belize’s ability to promote faster
poverty reduction and greater shared prosperity will depend
on how well the country deals with its main sources of
vulnerability. In addition to weaknesses in infrastructure
and in the skills of the labor force, several studies have
pinpointed crime and violence and problems in the financial
sector as important deterrents to growth. The analysis in
this report confirms the centrality of these two factors.
The predicament in the financial sector is largely driven by
the small economic size of the country and the lack of
competition in the banking sector, a common feature in small
state economies that limits the availability of credit to
small and medium enterprises. Stability issues in the sector
complicate matters as these impose non-negligible risks to
the health of the financial sector. On the other hand, the
rise in the inflow of migrants from neighboring Central
American countries with a history of crime and violence has
been raised as a potential cause for high crime rates in
Belize, but there is not enough evidence to substantiate
that claim at this point. Policy interventions that could
help halt the rise in criminality rates include ramping up
the quality of education, keeping children at school,
promoting education equivalency programs and job training,
besides more direct approaches such as investing in safe
neighborhood programs. |
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