PHILIPSBURG:--- On behalf of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Chris Johnson, head of the Dutch Representation Office on St. Maarten, presented Prime Minister Leona M. Marlin-Romeo a copy of the final version of the ‘Trust Fund’ agreement.
Along with the agreement, the Prime Minister received an invitation to attend the official signing ceremony and special program hosted by the World Bank in Washington. The Netherlands and the World Bank will be signing the ‘Trust Fund’ agreement at the ceremony on April 16th, 2018.
The Netherlands has reserved 550 million euros for the rebuilding of St. Maarten in the wake of hurricane Irma. The largest portion – 470 million euros will be made available via a Trust Fund, which will be managed by the World Bank. The Netherlands will deliver the funds to the World Bank in tranches. The Trust Fund will be accessible to St. Maarten via the World Bank until 2025.
This Monday, the Netherlands and the World Bank will ratify the ‘Trust Fund’ by signing the agreement. Once the agreement is signed, the next step is to set up a steering committee that will be led by three persons; one appointed by the Netherlands, one by the World Bank, and one by St. Maarten.
The steering committee will be responsible for approving projects that are proposed by St. Maarten. This is followed by a ‘call of funds’ by the World Bank, which will indicate that the Netherlands has to dispatch another tranche of funds.
St. Maarten is currently already in the process of developing projects scheduled to be funded by the 1st tranche of funds. St. Maarten with assistance of the World Bank are also hard at work to complete the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The NRRP will act as a guideline for St. Maarten and the World Bank indicating what priorities there are for the recovery of St. Maarten, with as added goal to build back better and stronger.
