News from Bonaire, St. Eustatius & Saba
THE HAGUE/KRALENDIJK - State Secretary of Finance Marnix van Rij (CDA) is preparing amendments to various provisions in the BES Tax Law. Van Rij intends to request urgent advice on the adjustments from the Council of State, after which the changes will be presented to the Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer) for implementation per January 1, 2024. For the average citizen, not much is expected to change. However, there are a few thorny issues for ... Lees verder
THE HAGUE/KRALENDIJK - State Secretary of Finance Marnix van Rij (CDA) is preparing amendments to various provisions in the BES Tax Law. Van Rij intends to request urgent advice on the adjustments from the Council of State, after which the changes will be ... Lees verder
KRALENDIJK - On Wednesday, legislative lawyer Maik Schumacher of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Affairs (BZK) presented the outlines of changes to the BES Public Entities Act (WolBES) and the Public Entities Finance Act (FinBES). The biggest ... Lees verder
The beginning of this week saw a second tentative step back to Full Democracy on St. Eustatius, with the appointment of two Commissioners in the persons of Derrick Simons and Glenn Schmidt. Tentative, as the Island Council has still not reclaimed their full ... Lees verder
At the risk of being accused of not understanding 'how things work' in Politics and in local Government, I dare to wonder aloud what the joint trip of all BES Island Council members to the Netherlands over the past week ,has yielded in concrete results ... Lees verder
Various islands in the Caribbean region say they are dearly missing LIAT. The carrier, previously owned by multiple Caribbean governments and with home base the island of Antigua, went through a controlled bankruptcy in 2020 after many years of financial ... Lees verder
KRALENDIJK- An initiative of fisherman Doei Diaz and his wife Chana, over the past twenty years it has grown into one of the largest cultural events on the island: The ‘Simadan na honor Chana i Doei Diaz’. Although Diaz was originally a fisherman, he also ... Lees verder
KRALENDIJK – As became known in the course of Thursday, René Hakkenberg van Gaansbeek, as his full name was, has passed away last Monday, April 18. Rene reached the age of 80. Many, especially older residents, will remember René, who was born in Curaçao in ... Lees verder
Ever since the political intervention by The Hague in February 2018, the argument has been that Statia's Island Council is too weak or too dysfunctional to carry out its full powers. But is it? Part of the current discussion is in how far the Council is ready ... Lees verder
KRALENDIJK- Despite the reopening of the pharmacy in the hospital, complaints about long waiting times and sub-optimal efficiency continue. Many customers have a hard time to understand why their medicines are not ready for pickup, even when prescriptions ... Lees verder
An online petition against the drastic increase in the annual contribution of the Chamber of Commerce has been signed almost 700 times within a few days. There is great indignation about the unprecedented increase in fees on all three BES islands. What is ... Lees verder