CURAÇAO STRONGLY POSITIONED DURING SIDS4

Willemstad – From May 26 to 30, Minister Cijntje traveled with Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas and a delegation from Curaçao to Antigua and Barbuda, where they participated in the 4th international conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The United Nations organizes SIDS conferences every 10 years with the goal of coming together to address issues concerning developing islands and their challenges in the development process.

During the SIDS4 conference, Minister Cijntje participated in various negotiation sessions, interactive dialogues, panels, and highly interesting deliberations for the development of Curaçao. Minister Cijntje also served as a panelist during one of the panels at SIDS4, which addressed the challenges and projects needed to help small islands achieve the transition to renewable energy. Alongside the plenary sessions, SIDS4 featured more than 200 smaller events held in parallel, where participating organizations and businesses could delve into topics of interest, focus on concrete solutions, and stimulate collaboration. In the various sessions attended by the Curaçao delegation, they provided a clear overview of what Curaçao is already doing to generate data and proposed joining forces with other islands with similar constitutional challenges to work together and reach agreements on fundamental development issues. The Curaçao delegation also demonstrated plans for Curaçao’s 2045 energy transition and discussed with other islands how technology can aid our economic, social, and cultural development. Thus, Minister Cijntje and the Curaçao delegation left a strong impression during SIDS4 and put Curaçao once again on the radar.

Opportunities like this are the perfect scenario for Minister Cijntje to hold bilateral meetings with leaders from various countries of interest, as was the case this time with representatives from Suriname, Jamaica, and Antigua & Barbuda. One of the individuals Minister Cijntje also met with during this conference was our own diaspora, former Prime Minister of Curaçao Eugene Rhuggenaath, who is currently working as an executive director at the World Bank. In this conversation, the Minister and Mr. Rhuggenaath discussed ways to create access for Curaçao to World Bank programs and agreed to continue these discussions to achieve more concrete actions for the progress of Curaçao.

The Kingdom delegation was well-represented during the SIDS4 conference, with young people from St. Maarten, Bonaire, the Netherlands, and of course, Curaçao. Kevin Eustatia, who is the Kingdom’s representative to the United Nations for youth affairs, led the youth delegation. From Curaçao, the young Guillendry Doran participated in all the sessions and learned a great deal about how agreements are reached globally and how these impact us as a small island. At the closing of the SIDS4 conference, the United Nations recognized the impressive participation of the Kingdom with a strong representation of our youth. Additionally, the Kingdom delegates congratulated Curaçao for its solid, strategic, and substantive presence.

The SIDS4 conference concluded on May 30 with the acceptance of an agreement known by the abbreviation ABAS, the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States. ABAS is named after the host island of SIDS4 and is a declaration to ensure the resilient prosperity of the islands and a promise to help the islands achieve their priorities over the next 10 years. On this occasion, world leaders declared that after three decades and three different action programs, SIDS remains a special case in sustainable development. Despite this, recognizing the unique vulnerability of our islands does not necessarily mean that SIDS is weak or lacks potential. Rather, it means that SIDS are disproportionately impacted in terms of physical and economic disasters. With this in mind, it is necessary to assist SIDS in diversifying our economies, strengthening our production capacity, and facilitating access to concessional financing for SIDS.