News Projects Social Improvement
2 min.
Almost five years after the devastating passage of Hurricane Irma through the Caribbean region, the World Bank is finally opening a small local office in Sint-Maarten to encourage and better coordinate reconstruction efforts on the island. Sint-Maarten was hit hard by the extreme weather at the time and despite an initial half a billion Euros from the European Netherlands, it has taken a lot of time, too much time, for the necessary reconstructions to get underway. The slow workings are the result, in big part, of a combination of over-complex bureaucracy and alleged local corruption involving the restructuring money.
High-stakes game of patience
Unfortunately, a relative lot still has to happen before the Sint-Maarten World Bank office will have truly and well opened its doors. The Kingdom of the Netherlands still needs to close an agreement with the involved World Bank branches. In that sense, the green light from the Kingdom Council of Ministers (Rijksministerraad) is a very good development. The government of Sint-Maarten also has some work to do still, as they need to prepare the legal framework for execution of the restructuring plans that is necessary to sign the so-called host country treaty.
The official title of the planned restructuring efforts is the Treaty between the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in favor of Sint-Maarten, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Internationale Financieringsmaatschappij (International Finance Corporation) concerning the opening and functioning of an office in Sint-Maarten. Both of these organizations form part of the World Bank Group and will be present at the new office. The goal of the Treaty is to coordinate and execute the necessary restructuring efforts financed by the Dutch Restructuration Fund. Involvement of the World Bank has slowed this whole process down considerably, but it was necessary after several individuals were arrested on suspicion of using part of the funds for personal ends.
Focus on Sint-Maarten
Getting the Treaty through the slow-moving wheels of international bureaucracy is a responsibility of the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, currently Wopke Hoekstra. The Kingdom Council of Ministers has explicitly stated that the Treaty is exclusively meant for restructuration efforts on the island of Sint-Maarten. Neither Aruba nor Curaçao or the European Netherlands have a right to the half a billion Euros of funds currently sitting in the Restructuration Fund. The hope is now that the end of the bureaucratic tunnel is in sight and that the actual restructuration of the island can finally get underway.
The basis for this article was originally published on www.dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl and others in July 2022.
