Business Community Invited to Help Shape Sint Maarten’s Proposed Investment Promotion Agency

Business owners, investors, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs are being encouraged to complete an anonymous survey that will help determine how the proposed agency should operate and whom it should serve.

PHILIPSBURG — If you own a business, have invested in Sint Maarten, are trying to grow an enterprise or are considering starting a business on the island, the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication wants to hear from you.

TEATT is exploring the possible establishment of a Sint Maarten Investment Promotion Agency, commonly referred to as an IPA. As part of that process, an anonymous Business and Investor Survey is now being conducted to gather the experiences, concerns and priorities of the people who actually do business in Sint Maarten.

The Ministry has awarded a contract to Pinnacle Consultants SXM, a locally based consulting firm, to develop the institutional and operational framework for the proposed agency.

The project is being funded through the Temporary Work Organization as part of Government’s wider efforts to improve Sint Maarten’s investment climate, strengthen the private sector and diversify the economy.

The assignment includes an assessment of the present investment environment and the development of recommendations concerning the agency’s governance, legal structure, operating model, funding, staffing, services and strategic priorities.

However, before decisions are made about what the agency should look like, it is essential to hear from the people it will be expected to serve.

That is where the business community comes in.

Investment promotion must begin at home

StMaartenNews.com fully supports the initiative and has agreed to help Pinnacle Consultants disseminate the survey among its readers, subscribers and the wider business community.

Our support is consistent with the position we have expressed in several recent publications.

In our article, “Investment Promotion Begins at Home,” we argued that an Investment Promotion Agency should not concentrate exclusively on attracting foreign corporations. Its first customers should also be the local entrepreneurs, family businesses, startups and existing investors who have already chosen Sint Maarten.

Before Sint Maarten can successfully sell itself to the world, it must create an environment in which its own entrepreneurs can succeed.

Foreign investors conduct due diligence. They want to know how long it takes to establish a company, obtain a business licence, secure permits, open accounts and begin operating. They want to know whether government procedures are clear and predictable. They also look at whether existing businesses are expanding, reinvesting and hiring.

The experience of the local business community therefore becomes part of Sint Maarten’s investment reputation.

In “Curaçao Is Showing Us the Way. Will Sint Maarten Follow?”, we called for less bureaucracy, lower business costs, more digital government services and a modern economic framework that recognizes technology companies, online service providers, freelancers, consultants and other emerging forms of entrepreneurship.

We subsequently proposed a three-year Startup Growth Period to give new locally owned businesses the opportunity to survive their most vulnerable years and develop into sustainable employers and taxpayers.

The proposed IPA could become an important vehicle for advancing these objectives, but only if it is designed around the real needs of businesses and investors.

Your experience matters

The survey is relevant to large and small businesses alike.

Whether you operate a hotel, restaurant, retail store, construction company, professional practice, tourism service, home-based enterprise, online platform or technology startup, your experience can help identify what is working and what needs to change.

The survey is also relevant to people who tried to establish a business but encountered difficulties, investors who delayed or abandoned a project and aspiring entrepreneurs who are presently considering entering the market.

The proposed agency should understand the obstacles businesses face when dealing with licences, permits, access to financing, government departments, commercial banking, taxation, investment incentives and the cost of doing business.

It should also understand which sectors offer the greatest opportunities for sustainable investment, job creation, innovation and economic diversification.

An effective IPA should be more than a promotional office producing brochures and attending overseas conferences. It should serve as a reliable central point where local and foreign investors can obtain information, guidance, practical assistance and support throughout the investment process.

It should also help identify recurring barriers and bring the relevant government agencies and private sector organizations together to resolve them.

That can only happen if the people with direct experience participate in the consultation process.

Take five minutes and help shape the future

The survey takes approximately five to ten minutes to complete. Responses are anonymous, and the results will be reported only in aggregate.

This is an opportunity for the business community to move beyond informal complaints and place its experiences, concerns and recommendations into the official research that will help shape the proposed agency.

If businesses remain silent, decisions may be made based on an incomplete picture of the investment environment.

If businesses participate, the resulting agency will have a better chance of reflecting the practical realities of starting, operating and expanding a business in Sint Maarten.

StMaartenNews.com therefore encourages every business owner, investor, entrepreneur and aspiring entrepreneur to complete the survey and share it with others in the business community.

Complete the anonymous surveys here (we have come to that there are 4 different surveys):

A better investment climate will not be created by Government alone. It must be shaped together with the people who invest their money, take the risks, create the jobs and keep Sint Maarten’s economy moving.

This is your opportunity to help shape it.

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