The Dutch Caribbean Kingdom partners (Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten) have all agreed to the need for developing policies to effectively respond to socio-economic issues and challenges facing them. The Dutch Caribbean Kingdom partners especially take into account the impact of regional and international developments concerning migration and its consequences for social economic issues.
The aforementioned is but one of several important topics addressed last Friday when the Prime Ministers of Sint Maarten, Aruba and Curacao discussed ways to further intensify collaboration as partners in the Kingdom.
Cooperation among the Dutch Caribbean Kingdom partners is seen as the most effective tool to strengthen, share and accelerate development within the countries and across the region. By sharing knowledge and best practices the Kingdom partners create ways to make positive impacts on their national developments, while making the most of the limited available resources and capacity.
The Prime Ministers therefore agreed on signing a cooperation protocol on migration and population policy. The protocol addresses collective concerns of Small Island Development States (SIDS) with regards to their population and social economic development. The addressed issues and challenges are not only common to SIDS, but also typical because of their small scale and open economies. This, in turn, makes them extra sensitive to developments outside their borders.
The Social Economic Councils of the Dutch Caribbean Kingdom Countries have already pledged to support each other by working together in developing a strategic policy which contributes to improving the resilience of Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten. This policy should be based on the most effective use of possibilities and advantages that migration, and in particular labor migration, entails for a sustainable socio-economic development in the countries.
It is the intention that the Social Economic Councils of Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten will jointly organize a Symposium on this particular topic, in early 2019. Together with all relevant stakeholder’s different scenarios will be explored to come to a shared vision on labor migration and refugee policy.
“The goal of developing cooperation agreements like this is to make an effort to transition to mutually beneficial relationships that will strengthen our capacity in the future, by making the best use possible of what we have available in the Caribbean region”, says St. Maarten’s Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin.
Ultimately, the Dutch Caribbean Kingdom partners will be focusing on national ownership by aligning their national plans to sustainable development goals SDG’s that are of common concern in the Caribbean region.
.