5. the case of aruba only a few months prior to status aparte in 1986, the island council of aruba, after many studies and discussions, decided to institute its own central bank and issue its own currency, the aruban florin, with the same nominal value as the antillean guilder, and that is 1. 79 florin to one us dollar. the prime reasons behind this decision were the perceived complexities within a monetary union with the netherlands antilles hen adopting the antillean guilder and the loss of monetary independence in a fully dollarized economy. for those who are not fully familiar with these issues, i must point out that the decision of the aruban authorities to peg the aruban florin to the us dollar is a unilateral one, and is anchored in the central bank ordinance, the ordinance governing foreign exchange transactions, and the state decree value of the florin. in other words, it takes a political decision to change the exchange rate of the aruban florin vis - a - vis the us dollar. just as the netherlands antilles, aruba has been able to maintain this peg, meaning that we have experienced an unchanged rate of exchange with the us dollar since 1971. starting from 1986, our economy has had an average annual per capita real growth rate of 2. 3 percent, a moderate inflation ( on average 4. 0 percent ), a debt to gdp ratio of 44. 1 percent, which is still manageable, and a level of international reserves that is more than adequate ( currently at 8. 7 months of import payments ). in the last two decades, aruba has made great economic progress : we chose to invest in tourism and, currently, aruba is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the caribbean. two out of three of our visitors are americans, which does not make it strange to hear that the us dollar is a widely accepted means of payment in aruba. these economic and institutional developments demonstrate that it is possible to issue and manage a local currency successfully in a small open economy like ours. 6. the case of the netherlands antilles now, i would like to turn to the case of the netherlands antilles. i know that dollarization of the antillean economy has been discussed before. as early as 1986, de boer and kamps investigated the possibilities of dollarization in the netherlands antilles in a study initiated by the university of the netherlands antilles. 1 the authors advocated prudence with

. an even more important, and increasingly, urgent question is why the symbiotic relationship between “ macroeconomy ” and “ environment ” is relevant to central banking, especially in smallisland tourism economies? i am already hinting towards at least one explanation, which is the nature - based, sun - sea - sand model of many small - island tourism economies, including that of aruba. although we often hear and read about ‘ nature - based solutions ’ for addressing climate change, our main economic pillar and source of foreign exchange earnings are tourism activities. these activities are deeply intertwined with the health and wealth of our nature, our ocean, and our biodiversity. on a small side note, what is this extremely popular place called? if we count the number of stairs ( see yellow circle ), we see that there are at least 5 stairs, and not three. but that is not my point. if we take a step back and look at the larger scenery – the bigger picture –, we see that this coastal rock formation mimics an “ open mouth ”, a “ white open mouth ” ( see white dotted line ). this “ white mouth ”, – and what is originally named “ boca blanco ” –, is one of aruba ’ s prime marine biodiversity hotspots. it harbors many of our protected marine species, including sea stars, turtles, and parrot fish. these and other species play a pivotal role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, effortlessly producing stability and regulated circulation. conserving this and other biodiversity hotspots is fundamental to not only protecting nature, but also preserving nature - based solutions in the form of foreign exchange earnings from tourism export. likewise, our quality of life and livelihoods are intwined with nature, and the many “ boca ’ s ” and “ beaches ” across the island. in terms of protecting our nature and heritage, and perhaps by properly educating our visitors, we should restore “ tres trapi ” to its original name as “ boca blanco ”. now back to the cba. as you can see from this interesting slide, our journey with the florin currency started in 1986, when the cba was officially established. coincidentally, or not, 1986 is also the year that dr. paul hilbers received his phd in international economics from the vrije universiteit amsterdam, and wrote the book “ the role of currency baskets in the international monetary system ”. the mandate of the cba then, and now