Business View Caribbean - Mar 2024

and ensure sustainable prosperity. International trade has long been a vital force in shaping the prosperity of Curaçao, fostering the exchange of ideas, technologies, and cultures. Historically, the island served as a hub for transatlantic shipping and privateering, boasting strategic deep-water ports, abundant salt deposits used for food preservation, and a defensible harbor. As Minister Cijntje points out, “Even though not a nice story, it proves the strategic geographic location and natural deep-sea harbors that gave us an edge as a strategic hub.” In the early twentieth century,the discoveryof oilfields in the northern part of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela attracted significant investments to the region. Refining became a major economic segment, contributing significantly to the island’s revenue for more than a 100 years. However, the impact of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the aging refining infrastructure in Curaçao have hampered its ability to refine oil, resulting in a significant decline in the contribution of oil refining to the domestic economy in recent years. During the mid-twentieth century, Curaçao developed a thriving financial services industry. The relocation of Dutch multinational corporations to Curaçao just before World War II, along with the extension of a double tax agreement between the United States and the Netherlands in 1955, facilitated the growth of offshore businesses. However, legal changes in the 1980s and beyond led to the decline of the offshore industry. The success of the oil refining business and the financial services sector in the mid-twentieth century contributed to a rise in tourism, which has become one of the main sources of income for the island, supporting approximately one-third of economic activity. Despite recent exponential growth, the tourism industry remains a vulnerable sector. This economic evolution has shaped Curaçao’s unique and open culture, reflected in its multilingual population, diverse traditions, and welcoming attitude towards visitors and workers from around the world. Curaçao is currently facing a large current account 19 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 11, ISSUE 03 CURACAO MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT