PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto has written to Dutch Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner seeking the release of the NAf. 78 million remaining from the debt relief, allocated to St. Maarten by the Dutch Government.
The St. Maarten Government is hoping that some of the money can be used to supplement the 2011 budget and for other socio-economic development initiatives.
In a press release about the March 10 letter to Donner, Shigemoto said the NAf. 78 million is left over because St. Maarten has already paid off its debts based on court verdicts, or creditors have left or denied having any claims on government.
The remaining funds are "a significant amount which can make a considerable contribution to the public finances of the country," the Minister said on Sunday. Shigemoto is looking forward to a favourable response and a quick release of the funds.
Government already addressed this matter with Donner on January 8, during his brief visit to the island.
Based on the Slotakkoord (Final Accord), NAf. 183 million was allocated by the Dutch Government to cover debts as part of the constitutional reform process of the Kingdom. From that total, NAf. 65 million was used to pay off St. Maarten's debts to the Netherlands Antilles Pension Fund, and NAf. 40 million would go to government's creditors who were owed money up to December 31, 2005.
The Minister explained in the letter that St. Maarten had started in an unequal position vis-�-vis country Cura�ao. Curacao already had a number of facilities in place. For St. Maarten, Government had to arrange service level agreements and buy the services from Cura�ao until facilities here could be established in the mid- to long-term.
The Minister added that some of the facilities and departments should have been established by the former Antillean Central Government. St. Maarten had to pay costs which were actually meant for the former Central Government for civil servants, so they wouldn't become victims of an impromptu separation without proper arrangements being in place.
"The emphasis by the previous administration was placed on meeting the special date of 10-10-10 rather than focus on how best to transfer the former Netherlands Antilles to the new entities. A considerable amount of investments needed to be made in public infrastructure in order to have facilities that could address the social development needs of our country.
"For example, the country is in need of more affordable housing for its people, and land which is scarce needs to be purchased in order for government to be able to build more homes. The landfill situation needs to be addressed, as there are consequences if this is not addressed. This is an expensive project."
Shigemoto continued: "The debt regarding co-insurance (medical) of Social Insurance Bank SVB of the insured persons needs to be paid off, and for the last several years Government has been requested to have a core task analysis carried out. Besides these projects, there are also facilities which either need to be refurbished or need to be built from scratch, such as a youth detention and rehabilitation centre. Cura�ao has such a facility and under the constellation of the former Netherlands Antilles, we made use of their facility, but nothing was ever built during the past eight years in order to prepare the island for country status."
"Today we are a country and we need the necessary facilities to cope with our own national development for the people of St. Maarten. We need to manage our development as well. I do believe that Minister Donner would also be of the same opinion. Country St. Maarten is growing and we need the facilities to cope with this growth," the Minister said.
Office for National Statistics Cheryl Cole Biology Guantánamo Bay Digital media Simon Cowell
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