THE HAGUE - As was announced before, the Kingdom Council of Ministers, on the proposal of Undersecretary Knops of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, has made a decision to give the government of Curaçao a budgetary instruction.

The instruction follows the advice of the Financial Supervision Board (Cft), which in recent years has expressed its concerns about the financial management of Curaçao and the widening of the deficits in the country's budget. Healthy government finances, as laid down in the Curaçao and Sint Maarten Financial Supervision Act, are of great importance for Curaçao's economic development and stability.

It is also of the utmost importance that Curaçao fully implement the necessary structural reforms.

The Netherlands is aware that this requires time and is difficult to achieve without support. To this end, an arrangement has been reached between the Netherlands and Curaçao on a mutual arrangement. Agreements have been made on the direct measures and structural reforms that Curaçao must implement in order to revive the economy and to bring public finances in order. This concerns the areas of economy, public finances, government apparatus, social security, care, education and the labor market. The tax system and the budgetary process are also being addressed. It is now important to execute the agreements energetically.

The Netherlands will support these efforts by making knowledge and capacity available. This support is linked to the progress that Curaçao is making on the implementation of the agreements included in the mutual arrangement. The progress is evaluated every six months by a joint committee that is still to be staffed.