Parliament gives nod to
‘final Antillean budget’
WILLEMSTAD--With 14 coalition votes in favour and five opposition votes against, the Antillean Parliament approved the 2009 budget of the Central Government, expected to be the last one because the Netherlands Antilles will cease to exist early 2010.
An opposition motion urging government to answer questions more quickly than is now the case was rejected. Instead a letter will be sent asking government to answer within a reasonable timeframe.
A motion urging government to use all means available to keep the seat of the Joint Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba in Willemstad was adopted unanimously.
A third motion passed 15-4 supports government in the current constitutional change process. The opposition voted against except for the National Alliance of St. Maarten, which also supports the agreements reached with the Netherlands at the island level.
At the beginning of the debate, four ministers answered questions about the budget that, according to the Parliament members, were still open from sessions in the Central Committee.
Of the four cabinet members, Emily de Jongh-Elhage (Prime Minister), Elvis Tjin Asjoe (Labour and Economy), Ersilia de Lannooy (Finance) and Maurice Adriaens (Transport and Communication), the latter had the story with the most concrete “progress expectations” for postal services, air traffic services, banking and telecommunication.
The new direction of the postal services in the Antilles will lead to expansion of the services and physical accommodations for that in St. Eustatius and in Curaçao.
While e-mail traffic implies a decimation of postal traffic worldwide, it doesn’t seem so bad in the Antilles. “The volume of mail is stable, no increase but also no further decrease,” indicated Adriaens.
The e-zone package service on the other hand turned out to be a bull’s eye, making it necessary for Statia and Curaçao to get more storage space for handling all the packages. No need to fear for loss of employment at the current postal services.
The same growth story applies to regulator and policymaker Bureau Telecommunication & Post (BT&P). Adriaens indicated that a new office has opened in Bonaire to meet the wish of the BES islands, wanting to continue working with BT&P in their new future.
BT&P is also busy safeguarding internet frameworks for the new countries in the Kingdom – an alternative is needed for the suffix “.an” that is currently being used for Antillean addresses. Another ICT subject that BT&P is looking very closely at has to do with developments of broadband internet.
Adriaens mentioned a further efficiency increase at the Postal Savings Bank. “It must become possible for customers in for example St. Eustatius to learn in 2 times 24 hours whether they qualify for a mortgage or not.”
The increase of personnel and expansion of physical accommodations are therefore not ruled out to achieve modern services.
“The Netherlands Antilles Air Traffic Control (NAATC) is doing pretty well. They outgrew the growing pains that every new organization has,” says Adriaens.
He anticipates that this important organisation will continue to function better while carrying out her duties. He’s anticipating investments as part of a positive vision of the future and future expectations: the acquisition of two (fly in) radars for respectively Curaçao and Aruba, for even better service to airline companies that call in at the airports of these two islands.
