Nevertheless, tourism is one of Belize’s main foreign exchange earners, joined by agriculture and services. Primary
commodity exports include petroleum, citrus, sugar, and bananas. Despite the contribution of other sectors to the
country’s GDP, experts suggest the economy is still largely uncompetitive with too high a dependence on tourism
and too high a degree of taxation. Exacerbating these economic challenges are major barriers to business climate
efficiency, which Belize will have to address in order to attract appropriate investment, expand exports, and bolster
sustainable growth. Again, the role that high-quality ICT technologies and infrastructures might play in this regard
cannot be underestimated.
Finally, although Belize has the lowest population density in Central America, it is significant that about 16 percent
of Belizeans live abroad while immigrants make up approximately 15 percent of the internal population. It is worth
mentioning again that Belize is likely to succeed in exploiting the value of this sizeable Diaspora only with a creative
set of ICT-related policies that draw on the tremendous potential of the new digital technologies and media
frameworks to connect people, ideas, opportunities and financing. This is especially important when treating to
the issue of equipping the country’s citizens to take advantage of the opportunities inherent in the digital
information age and, more than that, unifying an increasingly diverse people into a cohesive nation.
The fact that immigration from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras accounts
for an increasing share of the country’s population growth is quite notable when understood in the context of
Belize’s steadily declining fertility rate. These new immigrants are changing the face of what is a former British
colony, resulting in more native Spanish speakers than English or Creole speakers despite the fact that English is the
country’s official language. Moreover, Central American immigrants are establishing new communities in rural
areas, in stark contrast to the trend towards urbanisation seen in neighbouring countries.
These demographic and developmental factors likely influence the level of adult literacy, which stands at 76.9
percent, as well as unemployment, which is approximately 19.5 percent. With almost 60 percent of the population
24 years of age or younger, 35 percent between the ages of 25 and 54, and eight percent aged 55 and over, any
National E-Government Policy must treat to the challenges being posed by Belize’s changing ethnicity, culture,
language, literacy, and age distribution. Indeed, Horizon 2030, the country’s national development vision and
framework, has this to say about the challenges (pp. 4):
“Across Belize, people feel that divisions along ethnic, religious, class, gender and political party
lines have created a fragmented national identity, a lack of social cohesion and a weak sense of
patriotism. Where political party affiliation becomes the primary factor determining access to
public resources, stakeholders feel that this leads to the inefficient and ineffective use of these
resources. Stakeholders spoke passionately of the need to create ‘One Belize–Un Belice’ where
national identity encompasses inclusion, unity of purpose and ethnic and cultural diversity.”
Clearly, Horizon 2030 embodies a set of core values that include recognition of the need to build one nation out of
a diverse people. Other explicit vision statements drawn from stakeholders and contained in that 20-year national
development framework, which are of relevance to this E-Government Policy, include the following (pp. 9):
“Belizeans are capable of using state of the art technology which they incorporate into
productive enterprise.”
“The economy is competitive and public policy is well managed and supportive of
entrepreneurs, small enterprise and private sector growth.”
“Belize has a well-balanced distribution of wealth and resources and modern infrastructure is
supportive of economic growth.”
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