Dear Editor,
There was recently a letter to the editor by Mr. George Pantophlet, long time MP and leading figure in area of economic affairs. He suggested that the best thing was for the Netherlands to convert the St. Maarten debt to a grant. He is not wrong that in the short term that would be very convenient. Every other developing country globally would like to have their debt forgiven too.
When an MP of St. Maarten makes such a suggestion it might make sense to those whose economic thinking is simplistic. It is, however, highly negative for the image of the country.
The point of financing developing nations by rich countries is to inject funds that will create the institutions and systems that will ensure that these countries are able to function effectively without deficits and the building up of debt. There are those that would argue otherwise and claim different motivations but mostly without good evidence.
It is certainly not the intention that rich country governments have been instructed by their electorate to fund deficits in poorly managed countries with their domestic tax income. Unfortunately, the Dutch [Caribbean – Ed.] part of the Kingdom is regarded as being poorly managed event though we may believe (and I do) that we have made great strides and have increasingly robust institutions.
When an MP of our parliament, especially one from the dominant coalition partner that is a leading light in economic affairs, exposes his lack of understanding of development goals, this negatively impacts the perception of St. Maarten elsewhere.
Robbie Ferron
