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Government Seeks to Settle NEWCO Debt

356 views · Published 1 October 2018 · 1:39 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: Greater Belize Media | GBM · 2018 · News & Politics

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Prime Minister Dean Barrow returned to the country on Thursday, but he was unable to attend today’s House Meeting since he is still recovering from surgery.  So, Acting Prime Minister Patrick Faber led the proceedings on the government side.  A number of bills were introduced.  The main bill; however, was for the settlement of an old dispute between NEWCO Limited and the government in respect of a failed concession agreement to develop and operate the Philip Goldson International Airport. The dispute goes back to the past administration and started in 2000 when it engaged Lufthansa Consulting to advise and provide a feasibility study on the development of the Philip Goldson International Airport.  Two years later, in 2002, key investors went belly up and the then government granted NEWCO a concession agreement. But it was terminated in 2003 when NEWCO was not able to secure financing. NEWCO sued in 2005, claiming as much and ninety-four million Belize dollars. An arbitration tribunal in 2008 found that the government had breached the agreement in respect of the value of services and awarded NEWCO four point two million U.S. dollars plus taxes. In August 2008, G.O.B. started proceedings against the company for unpaid taxes in excess of five million Belize dollars.  It all brings us to today’s settlement agreement of six million U.S. dollars. We pick up when the acting PM traced it to 2008.

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