State Secretary Zsolt Szabó is Willing to Work Together for a Stronger and More Resilient Aruba

The Dutch delegation leaves with a good impression of Aruba.

On August 12th, the first meetings took place between State Secretary for Kingdom Affairs Zsolt Szabó and the Government of Aruba. Mr. Szabó's first meeting was with Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes and several advisors. During this meeting, they discussed the issues that the Government had already been addressing with the previous State Secretaries.

Meeting with the Prime Minister

During the meeting, the Prime Minister gave an introduction to Aruba, where State Secretary Szabó was very impressed. The Prime Minister indicated to Mr. Szabó that the country of Aruba is doing well financially and economically and that the country's tourism is also thriving. Unemployment in Aruba has decreased, and inflation is also decreasing. This year, the Government's focus is on translating this progress into prosperity for every household in Aruba. The Prime Minister explained to Mr. Szabó that thanks to the good financial situation Aruba currently has, the Government has already started working on this and has increased the income of public employees with indexing, increased the income of pensioners, and those in the private sector, the disability benefits have also been increased, and all of this is helping every citizen with their purchasing power.

Different from the other State Secretaries, Mr. Szabó finds a different and prosperous Aruba

The Prime Minister indicated that at this moment, with Mr. Szabó entering as the new State Secretary, he finds Aruba in a completely different situation than when Mr. Knops entered in 2017, which was right after the AVP Government, and the Netherlands had a lot of distrust in that government. The same was the case with the outgoing State Secretary, Ms. Van Huffelen, who entered right after the Covid-19 pandemic, and Aruba was going through a very difficult situation. Mr. Szabó is now entering during a very different situation as Aruba is prospering, and during the meeting, they discussed how they will continue to work together in the coming period.

Meeting with the Council of Ministers

After the meeting with the Prime Minister, State Secretary Szabó and his delegation met with the Council of Ministers, where each minister elaborated on their priorities and challenges. Mr. Szabó was very impressed, asked many questions, and discussed various points with the ministers, indicating where he would like to continue supporting Aruba since he has a good impression of the work each minister is doing.

Meeting on the areas of the Landspakket

After the meeting with the Council of Ministers, State Secretary Szabó attended a very extensive meeting focused on two areas of the Landspakket. One is finance, where Finance Minister Xiomara Maduro and her team explained all the work being done in this area, as well as efforts to strengthen the financial management controls of the country of Aruba. The second area of the Landspakket focused on the labor situation in Aruba, where the State Secretary received information, among other things, on the issue of undocumented workers, what Aruba is doing to make the labor market more flexible, and what guarantees are in place to support a worker when they lose their job. Here, the advisor of the Minister of Labor gave a very interesting presentation, which left a good impression on the Dutch delegation.

“There is much more work to be done with State Secretary Szabó, but for now, and for these meetings during his first visit to Aruba, he has received a good impression of Aruba, and that is what is important and makes me happy,” expressed the Prime Minister.