Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary Gracita Arrindell (third right) and International Partnerships Deputy Director General Felix Fernandez-Shaw (fourth left) with other officials.
PHILIPSBURG--Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary Gracita Arrindell and a delegation together with representatives of the other Dutch islands as well as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs attended a meeting in The Hague hosted by European Commission for International Partnerships (INTPA) Deputy Director General Felix Fernandez-Shaw.
The focus of the meeting was to inform the Dutch Caribbean representatives of the European Union’s (EU’s) Global Gateway Investment Agenda for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.
The EU’s Global Gateway is a 300-billion-euro investment facility of which 45 billion euros has been allocated to EU-LAC cooperation to support infrastructural projects in the region; among others, in the areas of green transition, inclusive digital transformation, human development and resilience in the health sector and vaccine development. Various Caribbean countries have already tapped into this facility.
Arrindell agreed that tackling the issues being addressed in the two proposed collaborations between the EU and the LAC region are indeed relevant for St. Maarten. She said that together with her team she will be looking into gathering support for these, as well as various other projects that St. Maarten considers as high priority.
