Aruba borrowed 916 million from the Netherlands during the pandemic to help the government, FASE, subsidies, food packages etc. For this loan, Aruba warned the Netherlands that Aruba deserved a waiver. However, the Netherlands was clear that Aruba would not be granted a full or partial exemption, said Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes.
The Netherlands asked Aruba not to bring the issue of waiver to the table, and Aruba decided to leave it at that and talk about debt refinancing. So the discussions started where Aruba wanted to know how much it had to pay back and Aruba suggested that they pay part of the debt now and park the other part to see if in the future there was any hope that Aruba would get a waiver.
According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes, it is also important for Aruba to know how many years Aruba can repay. It should also be clear what the interest rate is on the debt, so that Aruba can get an idea of how it will prepare to pay the debt it imposed during COVID in Aruba.
However, Aruba has already received from the Netherlands an idea of what the interest is and what the conditions are for each category of interest. That is all information that the Netherlands has given Aruba and Aruba is now in the party to make calculations to have the parliament consult and then return the Netherlands and negotiate with the Netherlands on what Aruba has decided. Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes believes that ministers will be able to give a broader overview of the Dutch repayment process in the last week of May.
It is a reality that Aruba has only one economic pillar, but when Minister Xiomara Maduro was Minister of Economy, he did a study with the world banks to find out which areas are good to develop.
In this study, they came up with 6 areas where Aruba can develop, one of which is diversification of tourism such as sports tourism, medical tourism, art tourism, but also agriculture, making the port and airport available as a HUB, this is given the geographical position that Aruba has in the region. From the point of view of the expansion of the Panama Canal, Aruba can play a much greater role than our port and airport as HUB. There is also the possibility of the knowledge economy and the University of Aruba is working on it, but also the creative industry where artists can create their own space where they can exhibit their art. Aruba’s blue economy is also not making good use of it.
According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes, Aruba’s two main pillars were tourism and the dairy industry, but it is true that the above-mentioned pillars are not the big ones, but if Aruba can grow the small ones, they can also become big.