That the Kingdom Council of Ministers agreed to make another 25 million euros available for humanitarian aid to the three Dutch Caribbean countries (see Monday paper) is admirable. But while food parcels are no doubt needed badly by some and therefore much appreciated, it is better to save jobs so that workers can still buy their own groceries.
To do so, continued wage subsidies enabling businesses to keep paying their employees remains essential. That in turn requires more liquidity loans from the Netherlands, namely a still-pending part of the second tranche and a third tranche to cover July-August-September.
No agreement has been reached on all specific conditions set for such, but the main problem is tying the current assistance to a broadly-contested Caribbean Reform Entity. The latter, consisting of experts familiar with the islands but appointed by The Hague, is to execute a restructuring programme concerning fringe benefits and waste in the public sector, the economy, taxes, care, the financial sector, law enforcement, etc., with – so far – little to no local input.
Some of what is proposed along with a large-scale investment plan could indeed be necessary due to the lasting impact of the coronavirus crisis, but one cannot escape the impression that the Dutch government may be underestimating the ability of the three destinations’ hospitality industries to recover even in the post-COVID-19 “new normal.” Developments in Curaçao and Aruba regarding the restart of tourism from respectively Europe and North America have been encouraging in that sense, while St. Maarten proved its resilience by bouncing back from several devastating hurricanes and the effect of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on particularly US-based travel.
The goal should not be to now make their economies smaller long-term, but rather keep these as big as possible under difficult circumstances so they can grow back later. That is the simply the best way to prevent widespread poverty and social misery.
