From left: a member of the state secretary and minister’s delegation, State Secretary for Kingdom Relations and Digitisation Alexandra van Huffelen, Deputy Government Commissioner Claudia Toet and Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK Hanke Bruins Slot viewing the Godet/Billy’s Gut area during their previous visit to the island of Statia.
THE HAGUE--Global Terminal Investment Statia (GTIS) a few months ago proposed three initiatives to the public entity St. Eustatius for its operations to be future-proof. One of these initiatives, the sale of plots of land to the Statia government, has already been successfully concluded.
Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digitisation Alexandra van Huffelen informed the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament of this on Friday. She stated that the financially problematic situation of GTIS remained unchanged, but that the oil storage terminal did indicate the desire to make the company future-proof and to accomplish this, it proposed three initiatives to the Statia government in July this year.
The company asked for a loan from the public entity St. Eustatius to repair oil tankers, requested a tax reduction and offered to sell plots of land to the local government, the Dutch government or a third party, Van Huffelen confirmed. On the request of the public entity St. Eustatius, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK gave advice on the proposed initiatives.
Article 11 of the financial law for the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba – the WolBES, prohibits the public entity from issuing a loan to third parties. The request to reduce harbour fees, mooring fees and taxes that the public entity St. Eustatius levies on GTIS was still being discussed between the involved parties.
Van Huffelen said that during her third visit to St. Eustatius in September this year, she talked about the third request, namely the sale of land, with Government Commissioner Alida Francis. She was told that the public entity valued having this land for future investments in housing, nature protection and making cultural heritage accessible.
“Due to the importance of the properties for the public entity St. Eustatius, the Ministry of BZK made two million euros available, and in the meantime, St. Eustatius and GTIS have reached an agreement about the purchase of these plots,” Van Huffelen stated, without providing details on the size of the plots.
The state secretary made the announcement in an update document that she sent to the Second Chamber about a number of pending issues in anticipation of the handling of the 2023 Kingdom Relations budget in Parliament this Wednesday and Thursday. The Second Chamber had asked the state secretary earlier to provide information about “relevant developments surrounding GTI Statia and the current state of affairs” before the handling of the budget.
Van Huffelen said that her ministry would remain in touch with the Statia government and the involved ministries, and preparations were made to support St. Eustatius in case the situation of GTIS were to change.
The Second Chamber on earlier occasions has expressed its concerns about GTIS. Based on an article that appeared in The Daily Herald in February 2020, then Second Chamber Member of Parliament Chris van Dam of the Christian Democratic Party CDA sought clarity on the reported mass lay-off at the St. Eustatius oil storage terminal. This newspaper reported on the lay-off of 80 employees working for subcontractors at GTIS.
The MP asked about the lay-offs, but also about the 2019 sale of the oil terminal. GTIS was formed in May 2019 with the oil terminal’s sale by NuStar Energy LP to investment company Prostar Capital for a reported sum of US $250 million.
