Curacao---14 Sept. 2006---Together with the island territories of
Bonaire and Saba, the National Government is going
to approach the Netherlands for extra financial
aid for the smaller islands of the Antilles.
This was agreed upon during the
National-level coalition meeting.
The
representatives of the coalition parties UPB
(Bonaire) and WIPM (Saba) brought up that their
island governments have a lot of trouble paying
their taxes.
It was then decided that these islands
would approach the Dutch cabinet together.
This morning, UPB-leader Ramonsito Booi
mentioned the necessity for a short-term solution
to be considered as an intermediate solution till
the new political status for Bonaire.
Booi
was pleased with yesterday’s settlement.
He pointed out that the smaller islands of
the Antilles can no longer cope with the current
situation. “We
have raised this matter with the National
Government at numerous occasions. The National Government has to take care of the smaller
islands, but when we appeal to the central
government for help, they tell us that we need to
stick to our budgets and that they do not have
enough financial means.”
But
Booi says that this is not what really happened in
Bonaire. “As
island, we are coping with another reality.
We cannot even think in terms of budget
deficit, but in terms of liquidity.
The money that comes in is immediately
spent again. When we took office a few years ago, we were in an economic
dip with debts.
We have consciously made a choice then to
invest in the tourism and economic development,
and because of this, we are now on the rise
economically.”
He now says that by making that choice, the
debt of the island territory has increased more.
“But we had no other choice; we were
damned if we did and damned if we didn’t.
As a small island we also have to do with
the fact that the Solidarity-fund (for the
financially weak islands, editor) does not take
last year’s increased costs into account. That doesn’t help us.”
Source: amigoe.com
