You are correct, and two additions. The causeway was considered and proposed by the Dutch prior to independence of the Dutch side and was funded by bonds purchased by the Dutch. The Dutch are already writing off the payments the island can't make and will most likely end up having to forgive the whole cost. The other major project in the past 25 years was the airport and the Dutch developed and paid for those improvements. If it wasn't for the quarterly Tranches that the Dutch made for the last 2 years, Sint Maarten would be a 5th world country.

And about the airport, phase III which was in the original 1997 proposal and was supposed to start in 2012, has never happened because of the ineptness of the countries government.