A new comprehensive free-inclusion, free-distribution business directory for Belize is under construction, and already available for use.
The Belize Business Email - Website Directory, giving email addresses and websites of businesses and some other organizations that have them, is accessible on three Belize Internet websites, with a fourth and possibly more soon to follow.
The websites currently carrying the Directory are at Belizeans.com , KevinModera.com , and Belize1.com.
The Directory is a public service project of the new Belize Development Email List, an electronic correspondence club focused on business and related development for Belize. The Directory's introduction gives information about the Email List, and instructions for joining.
Saving Belize businesses time and money are the Directory's primary purposes. It is classified according to business category, similar to newspaper classified advertisements or telephone yellow pages. It is distributed in electronic form only, and stored in users' computers as they choose.
Many storage methods allow users simply to point to and click on email addresses and websites and make contact automatically. Several methods also allow instant searching of the Directory by word or phrase.
Computer users with email but not Internet accounts can have the Directory emailed to them by request emailed to [email protected] . Anyone knowing of business email addresses or websites not included can have them inserted in the Directory free, by emailing the same address.
The time savings results from being able to visit websites quickly, and particularly by being to send email messages rather than leaving telephone messages often returned at inconvenient times, resulting in what businesspeople call "telephone tag", with messages being swapped back and forth. An email message is called for and received only when the addressee has time to read and respond to it. Time savings will result in business expense savings, but, in many cases, substitution of inexpensive email messages for long distance telephone calls will also reduce costs for both businesspeople and consumers. Belize is already internationally noted for its multitude of Internet websites and email addresses, that is, its people's use of computer communication. Many tourism-related businesses, such as hotels, airlines, and fishing and diving services, already report half or more of their business comes from the Internet. The Directory's publishers expect it to stimulate Belizean use of the new, efficient communication and advertising technique even more.
Belize Development Email List:
John Lankford, [email protected] Directory Editor / San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye
October 8, 1999