Good afternoon to everyone
a warm welcome to our distinguished guests of today,
the Honarble President of Madeira, Dr. Miguel Albuquerque,
President of Parliament Mrs. Charetti America-Francisca,
Prime Minister Mr. Gilmar Pisas,
Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Mr. Sithree van Heydoorn
Minister of Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning, Mr. Charles Cooper
Minister of Planning and Public Service, Mr. Ornelio Martina
Minister of Justice Mr. Shelton Hato President of Chamber and Commerce Mr. Billy Jonckheer
A very warm welcome as well to all our VBC members and other guests.
For me it’s a privilege and an honour to stand here as the chairman of the association representing the private sector opening this very important and positive business lunch. Yet, at the same time I am deeply humbled, given the responsibility and duty that we have as private sector to work together with our social partners, Government leaders and union leaders, to make sure that our economy is growing sustainably and provides enough jobs, quality jobs, income and security to the people of Curacao as well as the next generation. As such we must look around and learn from developments around us.
Since the early part of the previous century, Curacao’s history and it’s economy has been closely tied to Madeira and the people of Madeira. Many of our succesful entrepreneurs are descendants of immigrants from Madeira who came to Curacao in search of a better future. Fast forward 75 years and many of the 2nd generation have continued in the footsteps of their fathers, expanding the businesses founded by their fathers and contributing on a substantial scale to Curacao’s economy and it’s people. It is THIS spirit of enterprise, THIS commitment to a better future for ourselves and our children, THIS determination that we will overcome and be succesful no matter what, that WE need in these very uncertain times. When we look at the statistics,..on average Curaçao’s economy has been experiencing zero or negative growth for the last 20-years.
With the oubreak of the pandamic in March 2020 it made the situation even worse when it caused an economic contraction of 18.4% GDP in 2020. In Naf our real GDP contracted 0.9 billion…. from 5.4 billon in 2019 to 4.5 billon in 2020. During 2021 it recovered with only 4.2%. With the current projections of 5.5% in 2022 and 2.9% in 2023 it appears that Curaçao will not reach its pre-pandemic economic level. And keep in mind that the Curaçao economy as mentioned before was not doing good.
The dire reality demostrates us that as a country – government, private sector, labor unions -we have to do far more to be able to lift up the quality of life of our fellow citizens. Keep applying the same finanacial & economic strategies will certainly not bring us the much needed economic development going forward.
We must realize that the uncertainty in the world nowadays has increased dramatically to such an extent that we are now experiencing very high inflation and facing a global recession which will negatively affect the economic growth that we so desperately need. The prices of food and energy are rising sharply worldwide and this is putting more pressure on the operational expenses of our local companies and the buying power of our local population. On top of that the size of our population and internal market is shrinking further. Our active workforce has decreased from 38.9% in 2018 to 37.8% in 2020. In this respect, the VBC commends the government for the decision taken so far, to reduce the excise duty (“accijns”) and sales tax (OB) on gasoline and diesel till the end of 2022 at which time it will be reviewed.
On the the other hand, it’s our understanding that the government is also considering to expand the basic basket (makutu basiko) and increase the minimum wage.
As part of the local community we certainly do understand the reasoning behind these actions, however, part of that same reality is that many of our companies, especially small companies, are even more in a very dire financial situation than pre-covid. Our position regarding the “Makutu Basiko” has already been communicated publicly through a press release two weeks ago. The approach of the government to expand the “Makutu Basiko” as a general measure will also benefit the more wealthy in our community while it affects businesses negatively. VBC is more in favor of a targeted approach, whereby the lower income groups that are suffering the most under the inflation, will be helped directly.
As VBC we are also finalizing our position regarding the proposed minimum wage increase and will soon communicate this to the government. Also in this latter case our approach will be positive, practical and aiming to have a positive impact for both the minimum wagers and the economy as a whole.. on the short, medium and longer term.
VBC firmly believes that the only way to deal with these challenges in an effective manner, is to have an inclusive approach, as recently mentioned in the GOVERNOR’S speech. The only way that we can move our economy forward and increase prosperity for all is by working together and by starting to do things in a different way in order to be able to book different and more favourable outcome. Keep doing the same and expect a different outcome is what Albert Einstein called …INSANITY.
Unfortunetaly as VBC we often get the feeling that we are still being considered as an opponent instead of a partner. VBC is still, or at least not sufficiently included in important discussions with regards to the future of our “Dushi Kòrsou”. Take for example the negotiations regarding the “Landenpakket” and “COHO”, where the private sector is still not structurally included in the negotiations. Another example is when during the pandemic the crisisteam did not include a representative of the private sector, yet the decisions that were being taken in the crisisteam did have serious consequences for the private sector. Another example is the social dialogue where the unions, employers and government should meet each other regularly and structurally in the Tripartite Platform, yet this is not functioning as it should, since we haven’t had any meetings for several months now. As you can see there are quite some areas where together we can make shortterm improvements. Distinguished Government official. Allow me to repeat and declare today once more: The VBC’s position is…to be a Partner not an oponent. A partner who wants to bring substance to the table who wants to add value through best solutions.
We are all in this Together.
VBC’s vision is “TO CREATE A SHARED APPROACH TO REALIZE SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CURACAO, BY CONTINUOUSLY BUILDING BRIDGES”.
Shared approach and building bridges,..YES.. those are the key concepts. We live in a network society and economy with a high level of interdependency.
No longer do we want to seek the confrontation, but instead prefer to go the route of collaboration. That is also the recipe prescribed by the ILO and.. we have seen it function with great results in other parts of the Kingdom, in the Netherlands with its “poldermodel” and “overlegcultuur”.
Why not give it a fair try here?
I like to repeat that COLLABORATION is determined in our way forward in order to lift up our community in reaching its maximum potential.
WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS! We should be able to overcome our differences and old pains,……
jump over our shadows if you will, and just give it a go….. together we can.
Very important topics like the minimum wage and expansion of the “Makutu Basiko” could and should have been discussed in the Tripartite Platform …and still can… It definitely would and WILL not do any harm. I firmly believe we would have reached a better outcome. VBC wants to partner up with the government and other stakeholders to resolve the serious challenges that we are facing and reach shared solutions, having broad support and based on the philosophy of win-win.
Only then can we make great progress and move forward as WE THE PEOPLE and A UNIFIED NATION. We MUST eliminate the victim mentality that is holding us hostage for so long now and embrace a growth mindset, working together to overcome the serious challenges like a stagnant and aging population, very high inflation, global recession, high cost of doing business, unsustainable social security system, mismatch on the labor market, and yessss….the stubborn and infamous RED TAPE, just to name a few…..
Besides local collaboration we ALSO need to seek collaboration outside of our borders. As an island we are too small and we don’t have enough financial resources to face the huge global challenges ahead of us. We need to seek more collaboration in the Kingdom and our sister islands. We need to expand our market base. We need to expand our population size. The current market and population size is not enough to support a sustainable economy which can produce enough income to finance a high level of education, a top of the line infrastructure, a decent level of health and social care for the less afortunate in our society.
Ladies and gentlemen, WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF time, we need to move fast and we need to move together.
AND TOGETHER WE CAN!!
We also need to look how others are dealing with more or less the same issues we are being confronting with. The Board of VBC believes Madeira is such a small island state which we might learn from. We feel honored that Dr. Miguel Albuquerque accepted our invitation to be here with us and to share with us as President of Madeira about Madeira’s road to success (muito obrigado senhor presidente) and I have no doubt that we will get some idea’s and learn some valuable lessons from Madeira’s experience.
Thank you for joining us today and enjoy your lunch