Business View Caribbean | August 2022

39 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 MINI STRY OF ECONOMI C DEVELOPMENT CURACAO of services that you’re interested in exporting? Minister Cijntje: “In our national export strategy, we identified 6 priority areas. One of them is the financial service sector. “Let’s say, for instance, in the financial services, we have a lot of companies now that are already providing banking services. They are developing software that is helping other banks in the Caribbean region and providing service on that particular issue. We are very developed in that area and we have skilled people that can perform and give assistance to other big companies and investors abroad in the financial sector. So I want to promote that more and more. In the past, we were the leaders in offshore business in Curacao. Right now, we are not doing that anymore, so we are continuing “The other economic pillar that we are focusing on is the oil industry and we are trying to reopen the oil refinery again. There are discussions ongoing in that regard. When it re-opens, it will bring many jobs, as well as benefits to other companies like our shipyard. That will be a very positive thing when the oil refinery is operating again. “We are also looking into how we can make Curacao more attractive for people to invest here by buying houses and working from Curacao. We have a special program for digital nomads who can work remotely from our island while also enjoying everything we have to offer. That’s the structure we are using to recover our economy.” BVC: Can you share some examples of the type