About Bonaire, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Affairs, a job centre has been set up. That was before corona. There, people looking for a job can get advice on their job and career opportunities. Then affordable housing; 500 social rented homes, that is really a breakthrough with the local housing corporation FCB. There are now 76 ready. I’ve been visiting, too. Beautiful houses. Work is currently underway on the realization of the next phases. A bill has now been passed, also by this Chamber, on the rental committee on Bonaire. A pilot mortgage guarantee has been launched. All kinds of things that we think have added value for Bonaire, in this case, we roll out. Everything you prefer to keep in the European Netherlands, I always say, we keep that here, because we do not have to export all laws to the Caribbean Netherlands. There is no need for that. Only if it helps, if it adds something.
Many improvements have been made around agriculture and the slaughterhouse. I went there on my last visit. There they really try to create local entrepreneurship with new forms of leasehold, often on small pieces of land. If you grow up, are successful, you can feed agriculture in other places. I think it is very good to reduce dependence.
The infrastructure is a big problem on Bonaire. You don’t have to set thresholds there because the roads themselves already inhibit the speed. But that also has disadvantages and sometimes causes traffic hazards. That is why there has been considerable investment in infrastructure, particularly around schools, and much more is going to happen. That is really starting to work out, also with knowledge from the Netherlands.
Around the board, the operation of the island council, a registrar has flown in from Maassluis. He supports the clerk there. Through coaching on the ground, we really try to take people with us and train step by step, to get the board to a higher level.
Finally, and not unimportantly with regard to the governance agreement, and I am very pleased that we have continued to do so, we are also looking at how you can keep talent on the islands, or even sometimes allow it to return. So these are young Bonairians who have studied in the Netherlands or another country, for example, and who want to come back after a few years to work for, for example, the electricity company or for the local government. And those people do a program with each other, a talent development program. BZK supports this. We have been doing this for five years now and that just results in very good results, so that people also have support for each other to give a boost to the board with a modern education and background. Every time I am there — I would also like to invite you to do so — I talk to those young people, to those people, to those people, because it is always very inspiring to see what moves people to commit themselves to their own island