Ladies and gentlemen, as we celebrate the inauguration of this causeway, I would like to address the reasons why the Bank facilitated the financing of the Simpson Bay Causeway of Sint Maarten Harbour Group. As I mentioned on several occasions, we live in a period of Unconventional Monetary Policy.
In a speech during the National Economic Forum in  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  Curaçao on October 14, 2013, I quoted Jean-Claude Trichet1, the former president of the European Central Bank: “…we all have had, since mid-2007, the great privilege to experience extraordinary demanding and difficult times…” He went on to say: “The widespread introduction of so-called non-standard monetary policy measures by major central banks has been a defining characteristic of the global financial crisis.” These unprecedented monetary policy measures included the intervention in specific market segments to support market functioning through actions such as the introduction and expansion of asset purchase programs for commercial paper, corporate bonds, and government debt.