News item | 30-09-2022 | 15:45
Sint Maarten will receive 24 million Antillean guilders (ANG), more than 11.3 million euros, financial support from the Netherlands this year. The Kingdom Council of Ministers has decided this on a proposal from State Secretary Van Huffelen of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. With the money, the government of Sint Maarten can pay the current bills. The amount of liquidity support is made up of ANG 14 million in the third quarter and ANG 10 million for the last three months of this year.
The financial aid now awarded is part of the agreements made during the corona pandemic. The Netherlands then came to the aid of the countries with more than a billion euros in interest-free loans, in addition to all kinds of medical aid and support with, for example, food packages via the Red Cross.
It was also agreed that the countries would not have to meet the budgetary standards in 2020, 2021 and 2022. They say that you should not spend more than comes in. The countries were allowed to apply for additional support in the form of interest-free loans under certain conditions to cover any gaps in the budget that would arise as a result. Sint Maarten is now making use of this for both the third and fourth quarters of 2022.
Curaçao and Aruba have not requested liquidity support. Now that the corona pandemic is expected to have entered a new phase and the economies of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are recovering, the Kingdom Council of Ministers expects that all three countries will not need extra money from the Netherlands by 2023.