That the Dutch government in its 2020 Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations budget committed to three crucial projects as part of St. Maarten’s ongoing recovery from devastating Hurricane Irma (see related story) sends a welcome signal both locally and abroad. In doing so it also addressed several concerns.
One of these was that apart from badly needed fire-suppression activities no long-term solution for the dump seemed forthcoming. However, the annual policy document of Minister Kajsa Ollongren and State Secretary Raymond Knops for the coming year clearly mentions sustainable waste management with input from the French side.
Equally important is the pledge to completely restore Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), especially after a recent presentation on possible financing involving JPF Corporate Financing and Pension Fund Vidanova totalling US $240 million. This cast some undesirable doubt on the existing terminal reconstruction plans with a grant from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund managed by the World Bank and a soft loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) of $50 million each.
Vidanova in today’s paper clarified that it never offered to finance the whole amount alone, but as part of a consortium that could conceivably include the World Bank and EIB. The company said it had discussed possible funding for the airport twice before September 5 with representatives of government and was therefore interested when learning that JPF had been asked to look at other options.
It’s in any case good to know that the Netherlands continues to stand behind arrangements it helped make, especially because their implementation appears to be taking quite a while. That may be understandable, but so is an acute sense of urgency to get the island’s main gateway back to its former glory and allow the tourism economy to fully rebound.
