Debt Management has grown in complexity over the past decade as the scarcity of concessionary financing has caused many developing countries to increasingly turn to commercial sources of credit. Historically, small developing countries borrow to finance projects in an effort to fast track their economic development. However, if this process is not planned and executed properly, debt can quickly become unsustainable and problematic. Putting in place a proper debt management strategy is therefore a vital necessity for these countries and the debt management unit recently set up within the Ministry of Finance in Belize is in recognition of this.

Against this background, the Commonwealth Secretariat is conducting a Debt Sustainability and Debt Strategy Workshop in Belize from October 19 to 28, 2009. The workshop is the second to be conducted in Belize by the Secretariat and is a logical follow-up to the first, which dealt with the implementation of debt techniques and strategies using the Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management System (CS-DRMS). CS-DRMS is developed and maintained by the Secretariat and used to record and manage data on sovereign debt - both external and domestic. CS-DRMS is currently used by 59 countries at more than 80 government ministries or agencies like central banks, to manage their debt.

Workshop facilitators will include Mr. Walton Gilpin, a debt management advisor in the Debt Management Section of the Commonwealth Secretariat and two experts, Dr. Sanga Sangarabalan and Mr. Mike Flynn. Workshop participants will consist of economists in the Central Bank's Research Department and technical staff from the Ministry of Finance.

The workshop is particularly important for Belize, which has already had to restructure a substantial portion of its external public sector debt. The principal objective is to develop Belize's institutional capacity to formulate a sovereign debt strategy that will enable the country to align its debt management and growth objectives. Participants will receive guidance during the workshop that will enable them to produce a debt sustainability analysis report for Belize as well as draft the major components of a sovereign debt management strategy.