State-of-the-art infrastructure and logistics services

Transport and telecommunications are key sectors in Curaçao’s economy as the island strengthens its role as a global hub for business and trade. Foreign investors are welcome in the island’s transport and telecom sectors.

Thriving transport sector

At the crossroads of major international shipping routes and outside the hurricane belt, Curaçao has developed a thriving transport sector that includes the region’s largest deep-water port, a state-of-the-art container transshipment terminal, a full-service international airport with one of the longest runways in the Caribbean, dynamic economic zones adjoining the port and the international airport, modern cruise terminals, and a strong record for efficiency and service.

Curaçao Industrial & International Trade Development (CURINDE) manages Curaçao’s Harbor Free Zone, Airport Economic Zone and Industrial Park, and offers professional support to companies and investors interested in establishing operations in any of these areas.

Port operations are overseen by the Curaçao Ports Authority, which has an impressive track record in providing top-quality services and in developing the port’s facilities. Curaçao Port Services (CPS) operates most cargo facilities, which are ranked among the best in the region. CPS offers general cargo, container, bulk, break-bulk, neo-bulk and transshipment handling, roll-on/roll-off, reefer, stripping/stuffing and storage facilities at competitive rates.

Curaçao Dry-dock Company (CDM) owns and operates Curaçao’s commercial dry-dock facility, which is the biggest in the western hemisphere. It offers, among other services, hull, machinery, piping, electric, and electronic repairs to all types of vessels. Curaçao’s cruise port features safe and convenient passenger facilities as well as fuel-bunker capacity of 250 tons per hour.

Curaçao Airport Holding (CAH) owns Curaçao’s international airport and the land around it, and has ambitious goals for raising the airport’s regional profile and making Curaçao the region’s number one airport logistics hub.

Cutting-edge telecom infrastructure

In addition to its thriving transport services, Curaçao has developed cutting-edge telecom infrastructure that is considered on par with American and European systems. It features modern digital switches, direct telephone links worldwide, mobile networks, satellite link-ups, and fiber-optic cabling that connects Curaçao to the Americas II and Arcos-1 fiber-optic cables.

The government has liberalized Curaçao’s telecom market, creating a competitive telecom sector in which operators provide a wide range of services. Major international telecom leaders have already invested in Curaçao’s telecom sector, which continues to be developed.

Businesses operating in Curaçao can count on top-quality transport and telecom infrastructure as well as exceptional support for their investment.

Scarlet

“First and foremost, we aim to serve the Curaçao market.”

Scarlet, the dynamic telecom services provider, is setting the standard for telecom services in Curaçao. The company got its start by selling prepaid telephone cards to crews of ships visiting the Curaçao dry dock, and in 2001 it became Curaçao’s first wireless broadband Internet services provider (ISP).

Eric E. Stakland, CEO, explains, “By opening the market, the government proved it wanted to serve its citizenry by bringing in high-quality, innovative, yet low-cost telecommunications, and Internet services.” Scarlet has continued to offer its prepaid calling cards, which now account for around 35 percent of the international calls originating in Curaçao.

WiMAX broadband Internet

Stakland points out that while many licenses were awarded to telecom companies in 1999 through 2001, few companies actually followed through in the market; Scarlet was one of the exceptions. One of its very popular services launched that year was carrier pre-select dialing (known as ‘one plus’ service in the United States). Continuing its track record for innovation, in 2005 Scarlet introduced WiMAX broadband Internet service, another success story, and is the only provider of prepaid Internet.

Scarlet has earned a reputation for its superior customer service, and today it is the biggest WiMAX operator in the Caribbean and globally has the most heavily used network on a per-base-station basis of any Cisco-powered WiMAX network. “Wireless offers an alternative to fixed copper and we are testing local and international voice services over our WiMAX broadband network with full rollout in 2009,” Stakland says. Scarlet, now part of the Belgacom group of companies, is also one of five Netherlands Antilles carriers to join forces in an ‘Internet exchange’ modeled on a successful system used in Amsterdam; it combines redundant Internet peering with special offshore e-commerce tax treatment for customers.

Scarlet was also recently awarded the first local fixed-line concession in the Netherlands Antilles to provide local voice and data services, breaking the local fixed-line monopoly. It has also acquired a company licensed to operate throughout the Netherlands Antilles as well as an ISP in Aruba, but Stakland concludes, “First and foremost, we aim to serve the Curaçao market by providing a full spectrum of communications services while providing the best customer experience in the industry.”

Curaçao Airport

“We want to make Curaçao Airport the region’s number one airport logistics hub.”

Curaçao Airport Holding (CAH) owns Curaçao’s international airport and the land around it, and has ambitious goals for raising the airport’s regional profile. “We want to make Curaçao Airport the region’s number one airport logistics hub,” says Managing Director Clift Christiaan.

This is a challenge for a small airport in an island nation of only 140,000 people that attracts around 300,000 tourists per year. “We know that Curaçao Airport can never become the biggest airport in the Caribbean, so we decided to do something completely different. We are positioning ourselves as the key airport linking North and South America, which gives us access to an overall market of 500 million,” Christiaan explains.

A key advantage CAH can offer is that it owns a vast amount of land around the airport that it is free to develop. The company is currently looking to establish a new partnership agreement with a company willing to pursue ambitious development projects on this prime real estate. This offers great opportunities for companies to participate in this dynamic development or use Curaçao International Airport to facilitate their business success in the region.

CAH is focusing on attracting companies that want to establish a base in Curaçao for trade throughout the region and in North and South America. “We are looking for investors and companies that will bring more than just their business to the island,” Christiaan says. CAH can offer an attractive package to investors.

Curaçao’s advantages as a business hub include its strategic location as well as the close working relationship between the airport, the port, and CURINDE, the island’s export-promotion arm. The airport itself has much room to grow; it is currently using only around 20 percent of its runway capacity. Being a part of the Dutch Kingdom, Curaçao has a very reliable financial and legal system, which ensures a fair and transparent business environment for industries and companies to do business through Curaçao in the Latin American market. Further more Curaçao has a stable government, and skilled multilingual workers that understands and connects the different business cultures of Europe, North and Latin America. “We urge investors to come here and talk with us, and then they will realize all the potential Curaçao offers,” Christiaan concludes.