The debt rescheduling in behalf of the Country the Netherlands Antilles will take effect
Now that the Board of Financial Supervision recently issued a positive recommendation with regard to the 2009 Budget of the Central Government, and the Government's commitments with regard to interest payments and debt servicing on Account of its debts with respect to the period January - April 2009 have been approved by the auditor. In a letter dated February 5 State Secretary Ank Bijleveld for the Interior and Kingdom Relations congratulates the Antillean Minister of Finance,
Ersilia de Lannooy, on the compliance with the conditions for starting with the
rescheduling of the debts of the Central Government.
Thus also a start has been made with the implementation of the agreement that the new countries in the Kingdom and Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, as special municipalities, would be provided with a financially sound start.
The Netherlands has set aside an amount of about 1.7 billion Euros for the debt
rescheduling. The debt rescheduling consists of two components. For the arrears in
payments an amount of about 240 million Euros has been allocated, while the
remaining amount will be used for debt repayment plus interest payment. For the
BES as early as in November 2007 an amount of 27 million Euros was already
deposited on an account with the Bank of the Netherlands Antilles for the purpose of
making up the arrears in payments.
In accordance with agreements made earlier, 100 percent of the repayments and 70
percent of the interest payable on the loans of the Netherlands Antilles will be paid
by the Netherlands.
Rescheduling the repayments and interest payments after the period of January -
April 2009 will only be started after the Netherlands has received an auditor's report
with regard to these data as well. It is expected that it will follow soon.
