Prime Minister’s Visit to Mexico Achieves Major Progress in Bilateral Cooperation, Assistance and Development

-Press Release - GOB, Belmopan- 21st October, 2010-Major progress has been achieved in vital areas of cooperation, assistance and development as a result of the official visit to Mexico earlier this week by Prime Minister Hon. Dean Barrow and a ministerial/technical delegation which left Belize on Sunday October 17 and returned home on Tuesday October 19th 2010.
A total of FIVE bilateral agreements and documents were signed by the two countries. Signed by Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education and Youth was an agreement for Technical Cooperation to support Quality and Competitiveness in Technical Education and Training. Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Hon. Wilfred Elrington signed three documents. One is an exchange of letters for the exemption of Mexican visas for holders of Belize Diplomatic Passports to include Official Passports, another is a memorandum of understanding between the foreign ministries of both countries regarding Cooperation to support National Communities abroad, and the third is a Cooperation Agreement between the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property Rights and the Belize Intellectual Property Office.
Also during the visit, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Alexis Rosado signed the Final Act of the VI Session of the Bi-national Commission held on September 30 and October 1st, 2010, which covers a wide range of areas for cooperation, assistance and development.
During bilateral meetings held on Tuesday between the delegations headed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow and President Felipe Calderon, further cooperation and assistance was discussed in a number of areas such as Regional Security, Energy, Infrastructure, Housing, Education, Trade and Investment, Tourism, Sports and Climate Change.
Another substantive achievement coming out of the Prime Minister’s visit was an agreement with representatives of COMCE for a team of Mexican business people to visit Belize in February of next year to explore possible areas of trade and investment and to help develop the framework for a partial scope agreement between Belize and Mexico. The agreement was reached during a breakfast meeting that the Prime Minister and his delegation held with members of the business community in Mexico City.
The Prime Minister’s delegation to Mexico City included Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Education Hon. Patrick Faber, Senior Advisor and former Prime Minister Dr. Manuel Esquivel, CEO in the Office of the Prime Minister Audrey Wallace, CEO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alexis Rosado, CEO in the Ministry of Works Cadet Henderson, and CEO in the Ministry of Housing Lawrence Sylvester.
The Prime Minister and his delegation were accompanied during the entire visit by Mexico’s Ambassador in Belize H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno and Belize’s Ambassador in Mexico H.E. Rosendo Antonio Urbina. (ends)