By Alex Rosaria
Curaçao has, so far, dodged the worst of the COVID-19. Team Gerstenbluth is doing an excellent job based on an effective science-based approach. We are, however, facing a choice between a risky reopening to tourists and further economic collapse. The trade-offs are perhaps starker considering our dependence on tourism and the fact that our tourists come mainly from places where COVID-19 is still spreading.
Yet, some decision-makers are irresponsibly pushing to quickly re-open our borders to save the economy. Firstly, the sorry state of our economy is only partially due to COVID-19. The bigger picture here is the lack of fundamentals (inflexible labour laws, a burgeoning civil servant structure, no export network, and salaries-on-steroids in state-controlled entities). Our dependence on tourism and lack of revenue diversity remain a real weakness.
After the cautious reopening of local businesses, our priority should be response requirements such as in-country testing and repatriation of stranded citizens. We need to be designing new economic policies that are in sync with the global reality. We need to redesign the NOW and other initiatives aimed to cushion the economic blow. It’s been proven that not much thought has gone into the institutional aspects of the aid package. There are already signs of corruption and misallocation of funds due to weak targeting.
Yes, we need to think about eventually opening for visitors since we will not be able to rapidly diversify our economy as long as we don’t take care of our weak economic structures. We must carefully weigh when to ease restrictions that would save jobs but risk the virus running amok. Imprudent opening is chilling to imagine and could cause a lot of unnecessary anxiety with our people. We are better off not ignoring the science.
~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~
