St. Maarten refuses to sign transition accord
WILLEMSTAD–St. Maarten has refused to co-sign the transition accord the island territory of Curaçao and the Central Government signed with the Dutch Government yesterday.
The reason for not co-signing had to do with new conditions pertaining to debt cancellation that the Dutch government was trying to introduce for St. Maarten.
Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams confirmed for The Daily Herald that St. Maarten hadn’t co-signed the agreement. She explained that the decision not to sign had to do mainly with the condition that the Financial Supervision entity that is still to be established must give a positive advice on the 2008 budget in order to activate the debt cancellation mechanism.
“This is something new regarding debt cancellation by the Netherlands. Conditions St. Maarten agreed to were stated in the November 2, 2006, final statement and the February 12 Transition Accord. The only condition was establishing the Financial Supervision Entity,†she said.
Furthermore she stated that St. Maarten had asked how the giving of advice would work in practice. “The answer we received was that it would be discussed during the scheduled October 9 consultation of the Kingdom Political Steering Group.â€
However, St. Maarten decided not to sign despite a proposal of Dutch State Secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten for St. Maarten to sign the agreement with reservation.
“We decided not to sign, but stressed that St. Maarten was not angry. Curaçao is obviously comfortable with the condition set and by not signing St. Maarten does not stand in Curaçao’s way.
“Neither will St. Maarten be stepping back from the constitutional change process. We will continue to work,†Wescot-Williams explained.
She explained further that, based on the Final Statement and the Transition Accord, St. Maarten had been working with Dutch technocrats on the consensus Kingdom Resolution regulating the Financial Supervision Authority.
source: The Daily Herald
Curacao back on board
That Curacao has signed a Transition Accord to gain country status and receive much needed accompanying debt relief is good for all the islands and the Netherlands, because it should facilitate the process of dismantling the Netherlands Antilles and establishing new ties in the Dutch Kingdom. The biggest island and seat of the Central Government rejoining that process is essential, also when it comes to continued cooperation with St. Maarten when it comes to issues like the Central Bank and joint currency, the pension fund APNA, the Social Security Bank SVB, judicial matters and others.
That Curacao will receive a lot more in debt relief (close to four billion guilders) than St. Maarten is logical, because the former island has a much bigger debt of its own and its share in the Central Government’s debt is a lot larger. As was the case on the other islands, the accord also includes Social Economic Initiative funds, in this case 60 million guilders, to address some of the more pressing social problems and stimulate the economy.
One difference with St. Maarten is that Curacao persuaded the Netherlands to agree to include the debt relief and financial aid in a Consensus Kingdom Law so that the island has some guarantee the money will also come if meets the criteria. The latter no doubt has to do with the experience of the Pourier Cabinet, which took painful measures at the insistence of the Dutch Government with the involvement of the International Monetary Fund, but never received all the promised assistance. As a result, the Netherlands included that the Financial Supervision Entity had to give positive advice on the 2008 budget before the debt relief would start. Because of that, St. Maarten did not co-sign the Accord in Curacao, as the only pre-condition in its accord is establishing that Financial Supervision Entity.
Curacao also managed to get the Netherlands to agree to have a work group take another look at a few points in the Final Statement with which the island has some problems, such as primarily the Dutch Minister being able to give instructions to the Attorney General and the issue of sharing one Attorney General. If any changes are agreed to in that area they probably will benefit St. Maarten as well.
It’s time to look ahead, as Dutch State Secretary in charge of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld said after signing the historic documents. There is a lot of work to be done and the target date of December 15, 2008, does not leave much room for error. Now that Curacao is back on board, it’s all hands on deck to grasp this unique chance to obtain the desired status and create some financial breathing space so that the entities to come out of the process of constitutional change can start with a clean slate and give more attention to improving the quality of life for their people.
Source: The Daily Herald
Curacao signs accord, rejoins constitutional change process
WILLEMSTAD–Curaçao once again has joined the constitutional change process and says it will do everything in its power to realise the changes by the target date of December 15, 2008.
The island’s Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Zita Jesus-Leito made the announcement after Curaçao, the Netherlands and the Central Government signed the accession of Curaçao to the transition accord in the Queen’s Ballroom of the Curaçao Marriot Beach Resort on Tuesday.
The signing was scheduled to have taken place at 12:30pm, but it took the negotiators 2½ hours longer to finalise the negotiations. Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage, State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten and Jesus-Leito were delighted with the accord reached. De Jongh-Elhage was so glad that she asked the press to applaud the Dutch State Secretary for her efforts to reach the agreement.
According to the transition accord, Curaçao will receive a total of 3.9 billion guilders for debt relief, some 150 million guilders of which will be devoted to clearing up the Island Government’s arrears payments to its several creditors and entities, including the General Pension Fund APNA, the Social Insurance Bank SVB and other suppliers.
Another 640 million guilders will go to pay debts the Island Government of Curaçao has with the Central Government. An additional 1.5 billion guilders will be made available to pay the debts of the island territory of Curaçao such as bond loans and other types of loans.
The rest of the money, 1.7 billion guilders, will be used to pay off Curaçao’s portion of the total debt of the Central Government.
Curaçao will start to receive payments from the Netherlands when the Financial Supervisory Entity has been established and has given a positive advice on the 2008 budget.
Zita-Leito explained that Curaçao had negotiated that the Dutch obligation for debt relief would be stated in the considerations and explanatory memorandum of the Kingdom Law regulating the Financial Supervision.
Bijleveld-Schouten explained that Curaçao too would immediately receive a sum of 2.1 million guilders to meet the island territory’s most urgent needs for Curaçao. For the Social Economic Initiative (SEI), Curaçao will receive 60.5 million guilders to be used for administrative renewal and for social and economic initiatives.
Curaçao and the Netherlands will start negotiating a protocol soon, so the disbursement of the funds made available can start before December 1.
Meanwhile, according to Jesus-Leito, the six points of attention the Curaçao Executive Council approved in an island resolution as a condition for accepting the November 2, 2006, final statement have also been included in the transition accord. In the transition accord, it was agreed with the Dutch Government that the authority of the Dutch Minister of Justice and one Attorney General for the entire Dutch Antilles would be further discussed.
Source: The Daily Herald St. Maarten
Curacao, Japan advance at Little League on dramatic homers; Texas, Georgia also move on
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pennsylvania: Deion Rosalia hit a three-run homer in the extra inning for Willemstad, Curacao to stun Maracaibo, Venezuela 4-2 at the Little League World Series on Thursday.
Curacao advances to Saturday’s international championship game against Tokyo, Japan which beat Taichung, Taiwan 4-3 in another extra-inning thriller. Junsho Kiuchi’s homer to left ended it in the bottom of the 10th.
For the U.S. championship game, Lubbock, Texas beat Lake Oswego, Oregon 8-2 to advance to play Warner Robins, Georgia, which routed Chandler, Arizona 16-6.
Tied 1-1 after the regulation six innings, Venezuela’s Bryan Charry led off the top of the seventh with a homer to give Venezuela a 2-1 lead. Teammates lined the third-base line as Charry rounded third, greeting him with low-fives before he pounced on home plate.
Rosalia wasn’t happy about that celebration.
“It made me want to beat them up,” he said.
With two outs, Ademar Rifaela singled and Vincent Anthonia walked on four pitches, setting up 13-year-old Rosalia’s at-bat. Rosalia was down to his last strike with Curacao on the brink of elimination when he hit a 1-2 fastball over the fence.
Anthonia skipped in delight, frantically jumping as he rounded third. Rosalia soon followed and was greeted by jubilant teammates at the plate. He said it was his first game-winning homer.
Junsho Kiuchi raised his arms in triumph after rounding first after his 10th-inning homer sailed over the left-field fence to give undefeated Japan a dramatic victory over Taiwan.
Kiuchi pitched the win, too, after striking out nine in five-plus innings of relief.
Taiwan was stunned after leading 2-0 early on. The game was an inning short of the longest Little League World Series contest ever played.
Japan tied the game at 3 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth after Kazutaka Kato lined a hard shot to center that fell just in front of center fielder Chung-Yen Chen. The relay went to second, allowing Yuya Fukushima to score.
Kiuchi said he caught Rosalia’s game-winner on TV. Asked which one was better, he smiled and answered shyly, “Of course, mine.”
In U.S. play, Bryndan Arredondo hit a three-run homer in the third as undefeated Lubbock rallied from an early deficit to defeat Lake Oswego 8-2.
Calvin Hermanson’s two-run single in the second gave Oregon a 2-0 lead before Texas scored four runs in the third.
After recording all 17 outs in his first appearance by strikeout, reliever Garrett Williams finished with 11 Ks against Lake Oswego.
Warner Robins’ Payton Purvis hit two, two-run blasts, including one in a seven-run fifth inning that ended the game with Chandler early because of Little League’s 10-run rule.
With some of the members of last year’s title-winning team from Columbus, Georgia watching from the stands, Warner Robins pounded out 14 hits against Chandler.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
Sarah in Curaçao for constitutional talks
PHILIPSBURG–Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams is in Curaçao for discussions related to the Transition Accord intended to pave the way for Curaçao to formally rejoin the constitutional reform process with a view to becoming a separate country within the Dutch Kingdom.
The discussions will involve Dutch State Secretary for Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld.
Wescot-Williams left St. Maarten for Curaçao Sunday evening, accompanied by advisors Joan Dovale-Meit, Dennis Richardson and Eugene Holiday.
St. Maarten received the final draft of the Transition Accord last Friday. According to Wescot-Williams, St. Maarten’s approval of the document depends on it being in line with the accords signed by St. Maarten in November 2006 and February 2007.
The draft accord is similar to the one St. Maarten signed with the Dutch and Antillean Governments in February, which includes provisions for debt relief, among other things.
“St. Maarten would be open to any discussions that improve its position in relation to the two previous accords, but reserves the right to put any far-reaching changes to the Island Council of St. Maarten for its approval, as has been the case up to now,†the Government Information Service (GIS) quoted Wescot-Williams as saying on Sunday.
“We look forward to meeting with the Dutch [State] Secretary as well as with our colleagues from Curaçao in order to move the constitutional reform process forward,†Wescot-Williams said about the meeting scheduled for today.
Prior to leaving on Sunday, Wescot-Williams also said she was still confident that the December 2008 target date for the island to achieve country status could be achieved if all stakeholders kept working with that date in mind for completing the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles.
Source: The Daily Herald St. Maarten