Tuesday’s launch of the St. Maarten Trust Fund’s Enterprise Support Project (ESP) has been long in coming but is nevertheless welcome. Announced plans to assist micro, small and medium-size businesses hurt by Hurricane Irma go back to early 2018.
With the current negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis in many cases even greater, this may be needed now more than ever. Qualifying recipients can choose one or two out of the three options of an Asset and Repair (AR) loan/grant, a Working Capital (WC) loan and refinancing of existing loans.
The programme is limited to companies with a maximum average monthly revenue of less than 100,000 Netherlands Antillean guilders over the last 1-2 years, which seems a bit arbitrary. The same could be said about the minimum 20 per cent turnover loss required for payroll support, but – on the other hand – one must draw a line somewhere.
It can be assumed that research was done into the numbers which, according to the ESP’s official announcement in the newspaper, “are based on the Government of St. Maarten established/published policy.” That is fine, but relevant parties would do well to keep an open mind should a large amount of the available US $35 million remain unused due to requirements set. In such a case there should be willingness among all involved to make the necessary adjustments and broaden the project’s reach, as was done with the wage subsidy by removing exemptions.
No matter how you look at it, this is an important step to provide some financial breathing space to smaller entrepreneurs often struggling to survive. People also tend to overlook that having part of their employees’ salaries compensated alone still leaves other expenses and the help will no doubt be appreciated.
