Extra millions for BES-islands

September 17, 2008 5:59 AM

In order to come to what’s called an ‘acceptable provisional level’, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba can count on extra money from the Netherlands, namely 13 million euro (almost 20 million guilders) in 2009 and 14 million euro (21 million guilders) in 2010.
This appears from the draft-budget for Kingdom Relations 2009 (the so-called chapter IV) that was presented today in the Netherlands on the day of the Queen’s speech.

The money is going to be used for measures to start improving the education, safety, public health, and infrastructure. The first package of measures will start before the end of January of next year, meaning that measures for improvements can be taken before the political status change.

A joint Implementation Office for the Kingdom (Regional Service Center) will be established on Bonaire with smaller establishments on the other two BES-islands. The services that carry out the work (e.g. inspections, tax departments, and permit grantors) will be work together as much as possible in the center. One million euro (2.5 million guilders) is allocated for this center in 2009 and two million (5 million guilders) in 2010. The Implementation Office will open her doors in mid December.

Effective 2009, the Dutch tax department is also going to assist the BES-islands with the collection of tax money. For this initiative, two times 2.5 million euro (12.5 million guilders total) was transferred from the budget of Kingdom-relations to that of Finance. It was already agreed with the BES-islands in June that these 5 million euros will be deducted from the permitted budget deficit.

State Secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten (Kingdom Relations, CDA) said on the Wereldomroep that this center is going to be important for the apparentness of the Netherlands. “The BES-islands are going to notice the changes”, said Bijleveld. “They will see what the new organizational structure will look like. People will also notice for example that schools will be maintained.” Such offices will later on also be established in Curacao and St. Maarten, so that there they will also be able to transfer the tasks of the country. “We are trying to support that. Money has been allocated for that purpose so that good governance and a good official organization can be worked on.”

The process of the political reformation is central in the draft-budget. It emphasizes that working out and carrying out the concluded agreements will lead to substantial improvements of the governing culture on the islands. In combination with the restructuring of the islands’ debts and a broad package of social and economic measures, this will lead to an obvious improvement of the wellbeing of the population.

As is known, the aim is to reach an agreement on the legislation which will be the basis for the new relations in the Kingdom, thereby taking a big leap in the political changes. The parliamentary decision-making and implementation of this legislation can then be prepared in 2009. Bijleveld says that she hopes to get the necessary legislation for the new structure through the Lower House before the end of 2009.
“But that’s not going to be easy.” The draft of the most important legislation is already ready for the BES-islands and the first set of concrete measures will start in January of 2009, for which the extra millions are allocated.

The governmental strength of the five Antillean islands is still being referred to as a point of interest in the Policy-agenda Kingdom-relations, which is part of the chapter IV. Curacao and St. Maarten can continue working on strengthening their government apparatus via the cooperation program Institutional Strengthening of Government (IVB). Also the cooperation between the Association of Dutch Municipalities and the five islands will be continued in 2009. The Netherlands has in addition already taken care of personnel assistance for the cabinets of the Lt. Governors in the course of this year. This support will be continued in 2009.

In the field of law enforcement it is established in the Policy-agenda that the scale of the islands is too small to structurally provide for quality and quantity themselves.
In consultation with the islands, it will be decided whether or not the existing structural cooperation on various terrains should be expanded, for example in an essential terrain such as border control. On-going improvement processes, in relation to the police force and immigration for example, will be enforced.

The Antilles in address from the throne
Queen Beatrix also paid some attention to the Antilles in her speech in the Ridderzaal in The Hague today. The Queen said literally: “Democratic principles such as legal security, government soundness, and mutual respect also come first in the relations within our Kingdom. The government hopes to take an important step towards carrying on the agreements on the political changes of the Neth.Antilles with the National- and Island governments in December of this year. As public corporations, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba are going to be part of the Netherlands. This status change is being worked on.”

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

16 September, 2008