PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – The Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) and the National Recovery Programme Bureau (NRPB) expect that final financial agreements between the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the bond holders can be signed in the coming weeks, disclosed the Minister of Finance, the Honorable Perry Geerlings, during an urgent plenary session of Parliament on Friday, August 16th.
Minister Geerlings was also appointed by the Council of Ministers as the representative for the negotiations of the financing for the reconstruction of the airport.
The purpose of the meeting, which was at the request of Members of Parliament of the opposition benches namely Christopher Emmanuel, Egbert Jurendy Doran, Frans Richardson, William Marlin and Rolando Brison, was geared specifically towards getting information on the state of affairs at the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA).
“I am glad to report that there is a clear commercial understanding between the involved parties on the terms and timeline of the funding, including the full release of all existing and future insurance proceeds by the bond holders,” the Minister of Finance told law makers. He also made reference to the 71 million dollars granted to PJIAE by an arbitration panel.
According to him, these insurance proceeds plus the available financing from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank will be sufficient to address the next phase of the terminal reconstruction works and will allow the airport to continue its operations and finance its debt service until the completion of the works.
