BELIZE PRODUCTIVITY, PER CAPITA, IS HALF THAT OF THE OTHER SIX COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA.

BELIZE PRODUCTIVITY IS HALF THE OTHER SIX COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA.

Number of reasons.
a) Small population scattered over a large area.
b) Why do today, what you can put off until tomorrow, motto.
c) Politics is intefering with business.
d) Civil servants abuse their ability to deal with small businesses and overreact, to show they are boss.
e) Corruption, mostly at the senior levels of political inteference.
f) It takes too many, hours, days, weeks, months and years to get the simplest government requirements of bureaucratic red tape done.
g) Most investors wishing to come to Belize are looking for decent priced fast internet service,which does not occur much in Belize. It is spotty. The places were investors want to put their business usually do not have decent enough broadband internet service.
h) Not enough is done to ensure that small seed type entrepreneurial businesses are left alone to grow up first. They are penalized by the bureaucracy from the get go. Making most of them fail, or give up in disgust.
i) Outside of the port town, life is good and living while poverty level, is comfortable. If you make more, you attract predatory bureaucracies. The aggravation and troubles that ensue, turn people off. The cost of government red tape is too high, compared to what you can earn.
j) Very few, a small handful know how to export things. Even knowing there is a demand abroad.
k) There is very little manufacturing. Just a little in bamboo furniture, some metal roofing for local sales, cement block making, a bit of agro processing for local consumption and a tiny attempt at exporting. Most of the economy is based on tourism and raw commodity exports. You cannot build an economy without light manufacturing and exporting stuff you make. Thus the reason for low productivity per capita.