Interim Minister of Economy: impact closure refinery immense

WILLEMSTAD - During his intervention in parliament, the Minister of Finance who is currently also in charge of the Ministry of Economic Development, Kenneth Gijsbertha, spoke of the economic impact the closure of the refinery could have on the economy of the island.  The minister was very concerned about the situation and said that if the refinery closes it will have an immense impact on the entire community of the island.

In his presentation, the minister explained the negative impact of Venezuela on Curaçao in various areas, namely tourism, the refinery, commerce / trade and the refinery's impact on the operation and possibly the continued existence of other (local) companies.

1,200 people are permanently employed at the refinery. In addition, between 600 and 800 employees of different contracting companies work on the Isla site every day. “We are not even talking about the employees at CRU or the people who work for suppliers or other service providers,” says Gijsbertha.

It involves a total of between 3,500 and 4,000 people, who depend on the refinery for their income. If you include a family of 4 for all these 4,000 people, you end up with 16,000 people. If you look at 16,000 people in a population of 150,000 people, you understand the impact of a possible closure of the refinery.”

 

Every year - according to the minister - between 600 and 700 million guilders is injected from the refinery into the Curaçao economy. This amount comes from among other things the lease that the refinery pays to the public company Refineria di Kòrsou (RdK), but also from salaries that are paid out and the payment to contractors and other service providers.




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