It was good to see Parliament unanimously approving a 50-million-Antillean-guilder soft loan authorisation with no payment for five years arranged by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT and the Dutch Government. Together with the reallocation of NAf. 21 million left over from a capital expenditures loan it will serve to cover the NAf. 66 million 2017 budget deficit.
The move is no doubt also appreciated by the St. Maarten delegation currently in The Hague to discuss accessing the 550 million euros in recovery assistance made available by the Netherlands via the World Bank. Their main message was a growing sense of urgency.
The possibility has been requested to fund at least some priority Government projects outside of the main package, similar to the seven million euros channelled through non-governmental organisations. The reason is that with most majority resorts still closed, stayover tourism as the main source of income for not just Government but the entire country has all but dried up.
The initial emergency relief and subsequent insurance payments leading to construction have helped mitigate the socio-economic impact, but with so much unemployment in the dominant hospitality industry much more will be needed in terms of boosting business activity to create jobs and generate tax revenues. In addition, it needs to happen quickly because reserves in both the public and private sectors are dwindling rapidly.
Speed is indeed of the essence.
