The Prime Minister of Aruba gave a comprehensive explanation of the refinancing of the COVID debt. On March 13, 2020, the first cases of COVID-19 arrived in Aruba. According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes, the IMF had already predicted that Aruba would be one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 due to its heavy dependence on tourism.
The financial market closed on Aruba and was no longer willing to lend Aruba money at that time, but the priority of the government of Aruba at that time is to save lives and then the priority no. 3 is the recovery of the country of Aruba.
COVID-19 caused a 25% drop in GDP due to the closure of the border with Aruba on March 16 and reopening on July 1, 2020. When Aruba decided to open the border the rest of the world was not so far away and many declared Aruba a cowboy when Aruba was ready to open the border. According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes, the reality is that Aruba was able to open its borders because it was clear and it was thanks to all the professionals.
However, at the time of the border closure this cost Aruba 244 million in revenue that did not enter Aruba anymore and besides this the government had extra expenses. This also meant that for the first time, the government had to bear costs that it normally does not bear. The public sector should continue to be charged due to the ongoing operation. There was also the extra cost of healthcare to deal with such a pandemic, the extra cost of dealing with a crisis where controls had to be put in place and information had to be shared, but at the same time there had to be a take-care by the private sector.
As Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes came up with wage subsidies so employers wouldn’t have to lay off people, this amounted to 18778 people and cost Aruba 422 million florins to subsidize so the workers could keep their wages. The project also included a phase for those who lost their jobs during the pandemic, with 1246 people taking advantage of this phase and costing 79 million florins.
According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes, the government also came up with a project to support medium and small businesses, which received a quarterly support of 4 thousand florins to help them cover other expenses and which in this part helped 2522 medium and small companies and which in this part cost Aruba 44 million florins. There were also food parcels to help families who were unable to attend. A total of 6201 people used it and it cost 14.2 million florins. All of this means that the expenses have become much larger than normal and the revenue has become much less than normal.
According to Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes in such circumstances the only way to survive at the moment is to knock on the door of the Netherlands. There was no alternative, and when the Dutch knocked on the door, they were willing to help, but with conditions. From the beginning the Netherlands spoke of different conditions but the most prominent ones were the Rijkswet of COHO and the Rijkswet of RAFT.