Today’s news from Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops that the Netherlands has decided to immediately transfer to St. Maarten the first US $5 million of a $15 million bridging credit for Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) is most welcome. The government-owned company succeeded in paying the February salaries (see Thursday paper), but CEO Brian Mingo warned that there are still arrears to vendors that provide critical services for the island’s main gateway.
Knops said the move was necessary to prevent short-term insolvency. It must be pointed out that the local government already paid an emergency advance of $5 million to PJIA at the end of January.
The remaining $10 million will also come to Philipsburg in tranches, to subsequently be lent to PJIA. The entire amount is, of course, being deducted from the $100 million made available to rebuild the facility, of which half is a grant from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund managed by the World Bank and half a soft loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
There was recently concern over two motions of no-confidence in Parliament against members of the Romeo-Marlin Cabinet in which the financing scheme for the airport played a big role. The conditions set for such were strongly condemned and a change in government probably would have torpedoed the reconstruction plan, with all possible consequences for PJIA in particular and the destination’s tourism economy in general.
Because of United Democrats (UD) leader Theodore Heyliger’s detention the votes tied at seven each for the National Alliance/US Party opposition and the UD/St. Maarten Christian Party coalition, which means the motions were rejected and would have to be resubmitted to be handled again. Thankfully, that was apparently enough assurance for The Hague to continue the process of making the terminal’s all-important speedy reconstruction possible.
