SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) – Today, Wednesday, October 10 the Minister of Finance, Perry Geerlings, presented the Financial Recovery Plan. The Financial Recovery Plan (hereafter: FRP) translates the financial part of the Governing Program 2018-2022, Building a Sustainable Sint Maarten.

It describes the how, when and with whom the necessary steps towards financial resilience will be taken in the governing period from 2018 until 2022. These steps will form the basis for achieving all other initiatives in the Governing Program (including the National Recovery & Resilience Plan).

During the Council of Ministers press briefing, the Minister of Finance gave a brief overview of the financial history since 10-10-2010 and the challenges Sint Maarten faced in the past eight years with the hurricanes Irma and Maria as a very dark chapter in the recent past.  

The Minister: “Since rebuilding our nation needs to be first and foremost the responsibility of Sint Maarten itself, our Governing Program reflects the enormous task at hand to rebuild our country and our economy, next to operating in a normal day-to-day business of running our government. On this symbolic day, as promised to you, the people of Sint Maarten, I am presenting the Financial Recovery Plan.”

The Minister stated that the financial position of our Government is very critical. The risks that we face if we look at the financial state of the country are: 

• Severe budget / liquidity shortages for our government; 
• Worsening public financial management; U
• nfunded social security, pension plans; 
• Social, economic and political instability

Two trajectories of the FRP

The FRP is built around two trajectories. The first one entails the Government putting their house in order. The plan details organizational measures to be taken to increase the efficiency of governmental departments, such as improvement of our Public Financial Management, public service levels and restructuring of the Tax Administration.

Simultaneously the second trajectory will be executed and entails agreeing with the Netherlands on changes in the current financial framework and seeking of approval of loans and grants. If necessary, additional avenues will be explored through international or regional bodies.

Geerlings: “In the volatile political climate in Sint Maarten, my analysis of the current financial dependency might easily be mistaken for submission. This is not the case. Our partners carry a responsibility to thread swiftly and carefully given the current climate in Sint Maarten. We will constantly remind them that time is of the essence.”

The complete Financial Recovery Plan can be downloaded at: http://www.sintmaartengov.org/special-campaigns/Pages/Financial-Recovery-Plan.aspx

SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) - On Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 6:30 pm, the University of St Martin (USM) will host its second public seminar with a focus on health and sustainability.

The free seminar will consist of three 20-minute presentations followed by a Q&A period where the public will get a chance to participate in an open dialogue. The speakers for the evening will be Ms. Rose Rumnit – a Highly Qualified Detox Specialist and Liver Cancer Survivor, Ms. Maria Henry - Section Head General Health Care at Collective Prevention Services (CPS), and Dr. Golden Jackson - Assistant Dean for Service-Learning and Community Affairs at the American University of the Caribbean (AUC).

In addition to an engaging discussion, attendees will be given the opportunity to receive information on pertinent health conditions and practices on St Maarten. “Awareness plays an important role in promoting a healthy country.

Thus, we found it necessary to invite health-related NGOs to participate in the upcoming seminar”– said Dr. Rolinda Carter, Blood Research Scientist and Dean of Academics at USM, in written statements to the press on Wednesday.

Invited organisations include Positive Foundation (Breast Cancer Awareness), St. Maarten Sickle Cell Foundation (Sickle Cell Awareness), Kelaha Projects (Cervical Cancer Awareness), and the Diabetes Foundation of St. Maarten (Diabetes Awareness).

During her presentation, Ms. Rumnit will use her life experiences and the knowledge that she gained through many years of research to outline different therapies she applied with the help of Traditional Healing Professionals.

Ms. Henry will discuss current and future projects that CPS is undertaking to prevent and eliminate diseases on St Maarten. Finally, Dr. Jackson will speak on AUC initiatives in support of health sustainability. The host and moderator of the night will be Ms. Keoma La Hamer - Public Communication Associate at United Nations Development Programme, and founder of The KeLaHa Projects.

Present to give an introduction on the topic and its relevant UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3: good health and wellbeing) will be Ms. Joy Arnell, Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor.

“The USM Seminar Series was born out of efforts to shape future academic programs, as well as to service the community, government and public policy,” stated Dr. Carter, who was mandated to develop the natural sciences at the university.

“This is a great opportunity for government, academia and civil society to think about the future of health sustainability for the country and our region.”

The seminar will also be streamed live on Cani TV Facebook page.

SINT MAARTEN (SIMPSON BAY) - The St. Maarten 16 and under Baseball Team returned home as Champions from the Royal Kingdom Games in Aruba to an honorary welcome by the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport, the Honourable Wycliffe Smith on Saturday afternoon.

As the coaches, management and players exited the Conviasa aircraft, Minister Smith congratulated each person on a job well done. The team won their first three games against the Netherlands, Bonaire, and Curacao, before rainy conditions caused the final game against Aruba to be cancelled.

The twelve-player team comprised of Darlinson Tavarez Diaz, Julian Peterson, Mark Perez Figuereo, Yensi Morales, Roiny Telemaco Marte, Miguel Marryshaw Herrera, Freesje Hughes, Jhondel Peralta, Isael Vasquez Contreras, Mawali King, Eldon Morgan and captain, Anderson James.

Led by the President/Founder of the Sint Maarten Baseball Academy Foundation and national coach, Anthony Rombley, the team was accompanied by team manager, Yamal Thomas, their coaches René Leveret and Edmund Williams, as well as the Secretary of the foundation, Agnes de Polo.

In the annual tournament hosted by the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, Sint Maarten scored 15-0 against the Netherlands, 14-0 against Bonaire, and 3-1 against Curacao.

When the final game against host, Aruba, was cancelled due to the field becoming too wet for play, the organisers for the games assessed Sint Maarten as the team with the leading scores, most disciplined and over-all top performance.

As a result, the Sint Maarten Baseball Team was awarded the 2018 trophy for the Kingdom Games.

According to Minister Smith, “We are proud of our athletes and how well this team represented Sint Maarten in Aruba. Our youth are exceptional, and with the right support, there is no limit on what they can accomplish.

“We must encourage them, their coaches and the organisations that are dedicated to improving sports on our island because Sports matter.”

The Sint Maarten Baseball Academy engages youth from the different elementary and high schools, regardless of their experience with the sport.

The Academy aims to train and develop the recruits into top players who are capable of representing Sint Maarten on the regional and international level. Another recruitment drive will be conducted shortly.

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – The St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry (COCI) took part in the Sint Maarten Reconstruction Information Session that took place in The Hague, the Netherlands on September 28. COCI was represented at the information session by Anastacio Baker, Louis Bute and Bertaux Fleming.

The Information Session was organized by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (NEA) of the Government of the Netherlands and the Netherlands in Business.

The objective of the trip to the Netherlands was to get the message across that Sint Maarten is open for business; that the Sint Maarten business community must benefit from the rebuilding of the country via the multi-million dollar Dutch-provided fund managed by the World Bank; and to build a strong bridge between the private sector of Sint Maarten and that of the Netherlands due to the opportunities which are endless when we look at the knowledge exchange capabilities, according to COCI Executive Director Anastacio Baker.

Baker added that there was a lot of interests in the reconstruction of country Sint Maarten.

“There was a great turnout by the Dutch business community at the information session. From the one-on-one discussions that we had, there are great opportunities on the horizon to form business to business (B2B) partnerships with our local business community.

“The Dutch business community are ready and willing to work with us. They have the technology and best practice expertise on their end, and our local business community has the local-know-how and experience and it would be a win-win partnership for both to work together in building back better,” COCI Executive Director Baker said on Monday.

The Information Session was opened by Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops. Sint Maarten’s Minister Plenipotentiary Jorien Wuite in The Hague also spoke at the event.

“I was pleased with the statement made by State Secretary Knops. He made it clear that we are a Kingdom of four partners, and if one partner is down, then the others must heed the call to help.

“As COCI, Louis Bute, Bertaux Fleming and myself, championed the interests of Sint Maarten at the information session. We cannot afford to get bogged down in very tedious studies. Sint Maarten is already open for business.

“Due to the resilience of the Sint Maarten people and local business community, we were able to open six weeks after the hurricane with the resumption of commercial air traffic in October 2017 and the cruise ships in December 2017.

“I foresee the local private sector continuing to take the lead and with the business acumen of the Dutch business sector in collaboration and partnership with local businesses, this approach will facilitate an easy process of rebuilding the country back better in a sustainable manner for a better future of the Sint Maarten people, and to further strengthen our economy.

“Minister Plenipotentiary Wuite set the tone during the information session when she made the remark about the interests shown by the Dutch business sector being a true reminder of the strong ties that we have within the Kingdom.

“Our private sector is the engine of the national economy and COCI is here to facilitate partnerships between our business communities within the Kingdom,” Baker added in a COCI press statement on Monday.

Baker said in order to prepare optimally for the new business opportunities related to the release of the reconstruction funds, it partly involves partnering with a Dutch company, therefore COCI urges all local businesses to do an overall self-assessment to ensure that they are in good standing with various government and semi-government entities, and to join forces where possible to take advantage of current business opportunities.

Some of the preparations in order to prepare for partnership include: Checking liability policies; Meeting with the bank to determine the financial position and means of the company in the case of equipment purchase, additional payroll, operational costs, etc.; Update the company’s information, and/or register at the SZV, Labor Office, COCI, and Tax Department.

Some additional preps are: Update the company’s website or any social media profile(s); Profile the company: products and/or services, experience, staff, references, résumé, past partnerships, etc.; Start looking for partnerships and sign a project-based Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

“No business is too small or too big to do business to explore new opportunities,” COCI Executive Director Anastacio Baker concludes.

COCI Executive Director Anastacio Baker (center) giving a presentation to the Dutch business community who attended the information session about the reconstruction of Sint Maarten.