The green light for the expansion of the Port of Belize is being framed by Prime Minister John Briceño as a turning point for the country’s economic future. Following approval from the National Environmental Appraisal Committee, with strict conditions attached, the Prime Minister says the decision clears the way for long‑awaited investment in Belize’s maritime sector. Dismissing claims of political interference, Briceño praised the process as transparent and professional, and called the project a major boost for trade, tourism, and long‑term national development. With plans for expanded cruise and container facilities, the port redevelopment is now being billed as a potential game‑changer for Belize’s role in regional commerce.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“I think it is fantastic news, a game changer. As we all know, the port had certain history from way back in the early 200’s when they attempted to build a cruise port. Several groups have tried and for different reasons have not succeeded. I want to commend our government, Cabinet colleagues, because when I brought the idea of us to buy over the port and for us to follow the proper procedures to get all the approvals and attract the right investors to build a cruise port and container port for Belize, that they had the courage to give me the support to do that. So, it is a major undertaking. We took our time and made sure we had a good board of directors. We put a public execution unit, headed by Doctor Gilly Canton, people that know what they are doing made sure that we prepared a proper environmental plan. We had the advantage of seeing what went wrong with eh previous one and made sure we take those corrective measures to ensure we get the support. We are very pleased, excited about moving forward in actually looking at signing up with partners for the actual dredging and construction of the port.”
Paul Lopez
“What your thoughts on suggestions that the government for Belize directed NEAC to vote in this direction?”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“You really want me to comment on something like that? It is nonsense and these people are highly qualified professionals and they did what they believe is right. They addressed most of the issues. That is why when they gave the approval, they gave the approval with certain conditions they want to add to the conditions that were presented.”
Paul Lopez
“What would you say to any legal action brought by the Ashcroft or Waterloo Group or any port developer over this conditional approval?”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Well its not a conditional approval. We got an approval with certain conditions added to it. We got an approval but I don’t see why any company would want to take any legal actions, we followed the process.”
Paul Lopez
“They would rationalize, for example, that their project was denied some years back.”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Well we bought the port from Waterloo.”
Port Expansion Gets Go‑Ahead, But Developers Must Deliver
After nearly a year of review, the Department of the Environment has cleared the Port of Belize expansion project, but with firm conditions attached. Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai says the project triggered a full Environmental Impact Assessment early on, reflecting its size and complexity. While regulators have now given the green light, the work isn’t over. Developers must still finalize a detailed Environmental Compliance Plan that locks them into measures to limit environmental harm and address real community concerns, including traffic, flooding, drainage, jobs, and public grievances.
Anthony Mai
Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer
“This project, basically, the process is still not ended because we are in the process of preparing the Environmental Compliance Plan, but the process really started almost a year ago, in May 2025. And so, we immediately knew that we have to go through the screening process. The screening process determines if an Environmental Impact Assessment, limited level study or no study is required. But knowing this project and the magnitude of it, the complexity of it, we knew and we went through the screening process. We informed the developer that the EIA would be necessary and we developed a term of reference for it, in collaboration with National Environmental Appraisal Committee. We met on March twenty-fifth, deliberated and the final recommendation was for us to grant clearance. So, DOE has accepted the recommendation, and we have, thus far, informed the developers and we have issued a press release informing the public of the decision. So, the next process is to develop a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan that will bind the proponents of this project to mitigation measures, measures that would avoid, prevent, and mitigate all the potential negative environmental impacts. But there was a very critical discussion in NEAC in relation to socioeconomic issues as well. These issues relate to traffic management, flooding and its mitigation, in terms of drainage, employment generation, support for entrepreneurship, establishment of grievance mechanism, etc.”
So, while the Port of Belize expansion has the green light, regulators say developers still have plenty of homework ahead to address environmental safeguards and community impacts before construction moves forward.
PM Briceño Addresses Environment, Clears Investor Confusion
Prime Minister Briceño moved quickly to address environmental concerns and clear up confusion about investor interest in the Port of Belize project. He said the government remains committed to minimizing environmental impacts and developing the project responsibly, even if full agreement proves impossible. Briceño also stressed that talks with international investors will only begin now that environmental approval is in place.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“The NGO community, you could never get their full support. And that is their right. We are going to address it, whatever they believe is being missed. But we are going to do the right thing. It is time for us to build a cruise port for Belize and a new container port, and we have to do it and do it right, protecting the environment as best as we can. If you build a house, you change your environment. So obviously there are going to be some effects, but what we need to do is mitigate them and try to minimize them as best as we can and that is my commitment and the commitment of our government, we are going to do our best to mitigate the environmental issues, but to ensure we can build a worldclass port for the people of this country.”
Paul Lopez
“There is the issue of the major investor. You mentioned Black Rock. Can you clarify that?”
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Guys, you need to listen sometimes. Let me repeat again. There are several groups interested in making this investment in Belize. SSA Marine is one of them. They are one the largest port developers in the world and what I said is their parent company is Black Rock. There are other groups, like Global Port Holdings out of Turkey. There is a group out of Mexico. There are different groups that want to come but we could not and would not negotiate with anybody until we get the environmental clearance. Now that we got the environmental clearance, we have Nicols and Mofat, the same group that came up with the master plan. We are going to hire them to help us in setting up the terms of reference to negotiate with these different groups and see who is going to give the best deal for Belize.”
The Prime Minister says the Port of Belize project is moving forward with environmental safeguards in place, and that talks with potential investors will only begin now that approval has been secured.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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