People who wonder whether getting coronavirus-related liquidity support against conditions set in The Hague was worth it should take note of figures from the recent 2022 budget debate published in Tuesday’s paper. The soft loans enabled government to pay out a total of 86 million Netherlands Antillean guilders to benefit thousands of employees during an 18-month period.
The number of workers involved varied between 7,498 in May 2020 and 184 in the final round of September 2021, which also indicates a start of the recovery by then.
In addition, persons left jobless by the pandemic and sole proprietors also received assistance, while food aid was distributed to needy households. Without all this the socioeconomic decline on the island would have no doubt been far worse, resulting in widespread business closures, mass layoffs and abject poverty.
Not that everything was perfect. The local government had first proposed considerably lower amounts, which led to complaints that citizens of the three Dutch Caribbean countries deserved the same emergency treatment as those in the Netherlands including its overseas public bodies Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba, so this was rectified.
There had been a few controversial initial exclusions such as media houses too, but those were soon dropped. Many employers and their personnel nevertheless struggled and several still do, but one can only imagine how bad things might have gotten if no help was received.
Despite much criticism directed at the Dutch and local governments regarding this matter mainly by politicians and labour unions, it’s safe to say that Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten made it through the unprecedented crisis relatively well, certainly compared to others in the region. That is something not to be forgotten.
