With the Second Chamber of Dutch Parliament adopting a motion by members Jorien Wuite of D66, who hails from St. Maarten, and Lammert van Raan of “Partij voor de Dieren” (see related story) a Kingdom conference next year has come one step closer. The Dutch Caribbean counties must obviously still give their blessing, but there is no reason to believe they will object.
For those concerned about another Round Table Conference (RTC) after so much time, resources and energy have already been spent on constitutional changes in the past half century, topics would – in addition to “the right of union” and Kingdom Charter – include climate change, economic strengthening and regional/international collaboration.
Regarding the latter subjects, talking certainly won’t hurt. The islands remain relatively vulnerable in these areas, which means involvement and support by The Hague could prove welcome moving forward to address the many related challenges they face, provided there is a true intention to help guide and not to dictate terms as well as set the agenda.
One example is that experts from the Netherlands often hammer on a need to diversify the economy, while local realities make this difficult at best and simply not likely to produce significant short-term results currently required. The Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) recently acknowledged that the hospitality industry still offered the best prospects for continued recovery and growth, suggesting more diversification within the sector by targeting niche markets, etc.
To some extent this is already the case on “The Friendly Island” with its each sizeable stayover, cruise and yachting tourism, but – as they say – good things can always get better. A good start would be to hold the kingdom conference here, considering it was co-submitted by Wuite and the so-called ABC islands already get a lot of visitors from the Netherlands.
