THE HAGUE - Undersecretary of Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops does not beat around the bush. If the government headed by MFK leader Gilmar Pisas, yet to be appointed as Prime Minister, does not participate in the Caribbean Body for Reform and Development, then the support from the Netherlands to Curaçao will also lapse.
This can be read in a letter that the Undersecretary sent to both Gilmar Pisas of the MFK and Ruthmilda Larmonie of the PNP on Friday.
This means that the liquidity support will be discontinued, as will the non-mandatory part of the one-off investments in educational housing and the economy. This involves a total of almost 50 million euros.
In addition, Curaçao will have to repay the provided liquidity loans from April next year and also have to repay the outstanding pre-COVID bullet loans at the end of the term. At the moment, this amounts to 333.5 million euros.
Knops says that the Netherlands and Curaçao have entered into a non-committal cooperation and partly based on this, the Netherlands has provided extensive liquidity support. Curaçao, Knops writes, did not have to, but agreed to it.
The agreements made for this are and will remain the starting point for the Netherlands. Participation in the COHO Kingdom Act is a condition for obtaining support from the Netherlands.
IMF
The new Pisas government has proposed to structure the COHO land package into an adjustment program to be created, guided and monitored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Knops is not in advance against involvement of the IMF. But not as a replacement for the COHO. The IMF could be a partner, for example for macroeconomic calculations. The IMF already plays a role in the Finance theme, Knops says it is conceivable that the IMF will also be involved in other themes and will provide technical assistance.
Knops is willing to discuss the role of the IMF within COHO and to discuss the implementation of the country package. “If Curaçao wants to cancel the agreements made, that is also possible. It goes without saying that it is up to Curaçao itself to make this choice,” says Knops.