SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) - On June 20^th 2018, Bureau Telecommunications and Post St. Maarten (BTP) – the Telecom Regulator of country St. Maarten - met with Management of the Telem Group of Companies and UTS to coordinate telecom recovery efforts in the event St. Maarten get hit by a hurricane or any other natural disaster.

During the meeting in-depth discussions took place on preparatory work on the Telecom infrastructure, network resilience and the availability of communication services in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

While it’s clear that there are often many challenges to provide stable telecom services in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, it’s to the belief of all stakeholders involved that the chance of service continuity is greater by working together.

In order to achieve such, it’s to the belief of the Regulator that “Internal Roaming” is one of the most important things to enable in the aftermath of a storm to guarantee availability of communication services to all.

When the internal roaming is activated, it means that when the network of one mobile operator is down, their customers will still be able to make use of mobile services by connecting to the network of another mobile provider.

In Sint Maartens’ case; in the event the Telcell mobile network is compromised, their mobile customers would still able to connect via the Chippie network, and in the event the Chippie network is compromised, their mobile customers would be still to connect via the Telcell network.

In the unfortunate event that Sint Maarten again gets hit by a hurricane, and it has been determined by BTP that island wide mobile coverage is no longer guaranteed to the residents of Sint Maarten due to damages on the Telecom networks, BTP will advise the Prime Minister via the EOC-Structure to effectuate a Ministerial Decree that allows for internal roaming. The internal roaming will then remain in effect as long as the country is in a state of emergency. Confirmed article 8 of “rampenbestijding” and Article 40 through 42 of the “Landsveroderning Telecommunicatie.

The director of BTP Mr. Anthony Carty stated: “Even though BTP has the legal tools to execute the sharing of networks when the country is in a state of emergency, collaboration between parties is preferred whereby there is no room for competing at that particular point.

In an emergency situation all stakeholders in the industry need to come together and work together to provide services to the end users, and making sure that they are connected and be able to communicate with emergency responders and their love-ones on- and off the island.

Carty continued: “we do not have any control over when the next major hurricane will hit us, but we do have control over the preparation process. That’s why BTP will continue to make efforts to get all stakeholders in the Telecom industry to the table, and continue to work in the best interest of the island”.

“We have a common goal and BTP will continue to develop and update policies, implement service standards and provide guidance to the industry and ministry to further improve telecommunication services on St. Maarten”.

SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) The official ‘Safety and Emergency Response Guidelines for Schools’ (SERG) was dispatched this week by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport to all schools as one policy within the larger MECYS Resilience Plan.

The Resilience plan was created after Hurricane Irma to ensure that the education sector will be more effectively prepared to respond to and recover from disasters and crises.

Developed in collaboration with various school boards, community stakeholders like the Fire Department and Red Cross and with technical support from UNICEF Netherlands, the SERG lays out a number of quality standards and procedures for safety preparedness and emergency response within St. Maarten’s schools.

Although schools are not traditional response organizations, when an emergency occurs, school personnel and students must respond immediately. In addition to natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes, a school’s environment is also relatively hazard and threat-prone.

Threats such as gang violence or technological hazards such as an explosions or gas leaks may occur within a school at any time. This is why it is imperative that in each educational institution on St. Maarten, its staff and students, are fully aware of the steps involved in dealing effectively with an emergency and are always prepared to respond accordingly, contact the relevant authorities and take safety measures when necessary.

Each school will be required, in addition to developing their own personalized School Safety and Emergency Plan, to establish a school Safety and Emergency Team (SET).

The SET is responsible for establishing a warning system in the school, creating awareness of safety within the school, keeping updated contact lists for medical support professionals and ensuring that first aid equipment is available and maintained.

The SERG was also created to foster an improved culture of safety in schools as well as act as the first step towards the development of a larger comprehensive school safety plan that will take into account long term issues related to building standards, disaster risk reduction education and sustainable approaches to sector development.

PORT ST. MAARTEN – Port St. Maarten will be establishing a human resources training outpost in the third quarter of 2018. Recent stakeholder meetings which included Global Port Training have been a success.

Further discussions will take place with educational authorities to further explore the possibility of recruiting students from the high school system.

The training outpost will lead to the certification of persons working in the logistics field such as heavy equipment operators, stevedoring activities, and other port-container related operations. The certification will elevate the skill set of persons who are going to be a part of the rebuilding of the country as this process starts to take shape to build the country back better.                            

In 2016, Port St. Maarten set the ball rolling to establish key partnerships with global organizations such as Global Port Training with the objective of setting up a training Outpost in St. Maarten. These discussions led to the formalization in Antwerp, Belgium with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

“The development and certification of St. Maarten’s human resources in the logistics sector and providing an opportunity for those seeking a career in this area, will further catapult the country into this field of human resource development making it appealing to actors within the Caribbean Basin, as well within the North and Latin America markets.

“The latest logistics training technology will be used as we develop human resource development and excellence in logistical training that will serve first and foremost the local market followed by the region and beyond. Education is at the forefront of training the local market building a stronger and better workforce to meet the demands of the future,” Port St. Maarten Management said on Monday.

Global Port Training offers customized solutions - each project is unique, developed and based on the customer's expectations. The solutions both align with the company's as well as the target group's objectives. The company is specialized in launching new maritime activities and /or companies.

Global Port Training delivers a full 'concept', which clearly links the theoretical part of the training to the practical part; is very adaptable, mobile and flexible; and combines training and knowledge of Port related aspects offering training modules such as communication of safety issues, all aspects within stevedoring / dockers know how's, crane certification training, train the trainer courses and as well as the maintenance of the equipment.

The trainings also have an added-value as, for example with the maintenance of equipment’s the machines will remain in good operational condition for longer as well as last longer; there will be no unnecessary delays due to breakdowns; and operating hours will be maximized.

Global Port Training customers include companies, institutions and governments all around the world.

The training Outpost Facility will be a key component to Port St. Maarten’s operational excellence platform ensuring quality and certified port operations across the board via establishing various audit models for continued improvement and success of Port St. Maarten cargo division and will also be used as a catalyst to use St. Maarten as a centralized training hub on a regional and international level.

The partnership between Port St. Maarten and Global Port Training started back in 2009 with the certification training of the port’s first crane operators when the crane company was formally established. Due to the successful relationship that has been developed, Global Port Training and Port St. Maarten have been exploring opportunities in enhancing their working relationship.

SINT MAARTEN (SIMPSON BAY) – The SXM Airport Air Traffic Services facility experienced catastrophic damage to its equipment during hurricane Irma last September.

The company has taken on the difficult task of restoring all the equipment and components required for the safe and efficient operation of aircraft within St. Maarten’s airspace.

PJIAE has chosen Thales as the provider of Primary/ Secondary Surveillance Radar and Automation equipment. Thales is one of the most reputable providers of radar and automation systems worldwide and has been delivering on its obligations.

The integration of radar, communication and navigation equipment is a tedious yet essential component of the project. PJIAE is on schedule to complete the Radar portion of the project by August 2018.

The radar project involved among many other logistical aspects, dismantling the dome above the Air Traffic Control tower, removing the existing radar antennas/ motor assembly, replacing the components and rebuilding the dome.

There has been an excellent and close coordination between all PJIAE departments and the contractors and hence PJIAE Air Traffic Control expects to be at full capacity prior to the high season of 2018/2019.