Page 6 - UTILITIES JULY 20

4 PROJECTS that have THE signing between the Government, ODINSA, Deutsche
Bank and Price Waterhouse Coopers in New York last week is
been waiting to be the initiation of the first PPP project in Aruba.
The Green Corridor project is just one of the 4 projects that
IMPLEMENTED for Aruba has been waiting on for more than 30 years and is
currently being executed by Cabinet Mike Eman.
30 years Each one of these projects will achieve social and economic
growth for Aruba and a guarantee that Aruba will be a strong
4 LOCAL product on the tourist market.
When Cabinet Mike Eman I started governing the economic
situation of Aruba was concerning, Aruba had no economic
growth instead the island had an economic decrease of 5%.
According to Minister Benny Sevinger this means that the
country wasn’t developing and the opportunity to get an
income raise wasn’t there.

“We had to deal with an inflation that caused the Aruban
florin to decrease 22% in worth. The world was in a crisis but
Aruba was in a double crisis because of the refinery shutting
down. That’s was what the Government had to deal with at
the beginning of their reign.” According to Minister Sevinger.
Cabinet Mike Eman I and II saw that the economy had to be
stimulated and because of that they developed a plan to execute
every project that could improve the economy temporarily

“The government immediately started working towards
creating job opportunities, construction, stimulate projects
that could better Aruba as product like fixing the downtown
area, fixing San Nicolas and San Nicolas neighborhoods, to
stimulate job opportunities and create more income revenues.
Once more people are working and there is more income
spending will increase thus increasing the governments’
income. That’s why the 4 projects were introduced, but it’s not
until now that they are finally being implemented.” Minister
Sevinger explained.

The 4 projects are the Green Corridor, Fixing Watty Vos
Boulevard, Expansion of the Hospital and The new harbor.
Minister Sevinger said: “When the hospital and the road to
San Nicolas were built Aruba had 50 thousand inhabitants,
we currently have a population of 110 thousand inhabitants,
which is a little more than double. For this reason we need to
improve our infrastructure.” In 2009 the government put a
team of local and international experts together, their goal was
to investigate the infrastructure situation and create a list of
priority. After this the government met with the DOW, DIP and
SERLIMAR departments along with architecture, economy
and urban development professionals to create a Master Plan.

Besides that Cabinet Mike Eman met with stakeholders such
as the citizens of the neighborhoods involved. Once the Plan
was ready a team was put together to execute the plan. If the
Government hadn’t done this it would’ve been just like other
Governments who plan, plan and plan but never implement
their plans.

The Infra Team consists of experiences experts on how the
Government works and how projects are executed.
Every week Prime Minister Mike Eman goes through the
projects and talks about the challenges that may present to
foresee any problems and come up with solutions with the
team.

Miniser Sevinger concluded his speech by saying: “If you notice
how many projects have been completed and how many more
are planned it is a huge difference between the Aruba that the
Government found when they started governing in 2009. This
country now has a future and is intensely preparing for this
future.”

Monday, July 20 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER