The Chamber of Commerce wonders whether we have all maneuvered ourselves into a pointless and endless tunnel regarding the socio-economic development of Curaçao.
WILLEMSTAD - Broad prosperity requires a compass! Curaçao must be able to focus on the direction of the necessary and desired growth. The current global developments can push relations on both sides of the Atlantic to hostile grounds, such as, for example, regarding the need for, and measurement of, supervision, the quality of reforms and investments in the context of the National Package. This is not entirely illogical. However, the National Package does provide a basis from which future developments can be supported. That foundation is essential. Much more than the question of whether or not agreements have been renegotiated, it is essentially about the 'efficiency of investments'. The TAC report from 2013 is clear about this. The moderate economic growth is partly due to insufficiently efficient investments. For example, it is recommended to discourage low-efficiency investments (e.g. real estate, retail) and to encourage high-efficiency investments (e.g. health sector, R&D, education, telecommunications, efficient infrastructural investments).
In other words, there is a need for efficient investments that contribute to economic growth and development. Investments of which the proceeds flow back to commerce, families and the government.
Responding to this requires a compass for the island with the key question: What kind of economy do we want for the island? This direction is currently lacking in all debates. It is a question that goes much further than the mere question of the rate of growth, but puts the emphasis on the direction and route you wish to map out as a nation. For example, more meaningful and highly productive jobs, less or no pollution, better care, quality work, smart innovations, etc. Characteristic of this direction is also the 'broad prosperity', in which, in addition to material and economic growth, the living environment and inclusiveness are also taken into account.
Where is the real added value of activities that should determine our future? And how can we transform the binding constraints identified by TAC, i.e., low human capital, ineffective government, related to micro risks, poor intermediation & low domestic savings, into a virtue? This is what the discussions should be about, and with instruments such as the Country Package (the basis) and a compass for broad prosperity (the direction), work can be done on a sustainable and resilient society that can respond flexibly to changing circumstances.
We can only start doing that if we all step out of the meaningless and endless tunnel in which we have maneuvered ourselves.