By Hilbert Haar Maybe it is just me but I was severely scratching my head when I read the questions in the survey launched by Prime Minister Jacobs as part of her electoral reform campaign. I mean, if you intend to gather information from the public about the topic, why ask them stuff like: do you know what electoral reform is? Or: would you like to know more about electoral reform? How are answers to such questions going to be helpful? Related article: PM Jacobs launches electoral reform campaign I lost it already when I read question number four: Does…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — More than half of the respondents in a Central Bank-survey into the effect of red tape on business performance and economic development said that the costs of regulatory compliance have increased between 2015 and 2019. Businesses spend on average more than 2.5 hours per week on it. The top-5 most costly administrative procedures are resolving insolvency, establishing permits, contracting with government, dealing with construction permits and obtaining credit. The survey was conducted by Reggie Martes, an economic and research specialist at the Central Bank. The in-depth analysis of his findings will be published in the fourth quarter of…
PHILIPSBURG — Making St. Maarten less dependent on tourism? But how? That is the headline above an article published on the website of the Dutch newspaper NRC. The author, Denise Retera, poses the question but does not come up with a useful answer. Retera spoke with two employees of Say Yes Jewelers on Front Street, Coconut man Omar McGregor, port-director Alexander Gumbs, former Minister of Tourism and current Member of Parliament for the United People’s party Ludmilla de Weever and (via telephone) with acting Tourism Minister Omar Ottley. While the article does not come to a definite conclusion, it does…
PHILIPSBURG — The Princess Juliana International Airport Exploitation Company (PJIAE) installed three new members to its supervisory board this week: Marion Kan, Justin Woods and Anisa Dijkhoffz. This was confirmed by Minister of Finance, Ardwell Irion, in an invited comment. Dijkhoffz is a project manager at the St. Maarten National Recovery Program bureau. Woods is the managing director and chief financial officer at Nagico Insurances and Kan is an investment manager at the Caribbean Mercantile Bank with a career that spans more than thirty years. Kamla Besancon, Clarence Derby and Alain Maca stepped down as members of this supervisory board.…
PHILIPSBURG — The boys and girls at Teen Times are having a lot of fun with their annual evaluation of local politicians. They do their homework on this topic, and they don’t mince their words either. For the electorate, their findings come across as a breath of fresh air. Click here to review their 2022 grading of MPs and Ministers>>> Evaluating politicians is tricky business, as we learned from several position papers posted on the website of Lawrence Talks! This is an interdisciplinary media platform for the community of the town of Lawrence in the state of Kansas. Why is…
1. The Licensing system PHILIPSBURG — Establishing a business in St. Maarten is an at times an expensive road littered with stumbling blocks. The Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Tourism, Transport and Telecommunication commissioned a report to assess the local business climate, identify bottlenecks and recommend solutions. The report is produced by the Foundation Economic Research (SEO), the Economic Bureau Amsterdam (EBA) and Tackling Law. In this first episode in a series of articles based on the report we take a look at what causes many an entrepreneur nightmares: the licensing system.…
PHILIPSBURG — Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs “spearheads” an electoral reform campaign, a press release from the Ministry of General Affairs states. The release announces the initiative for a survey to give citizens the opportunity to voice their opinion about the reform, and for town hall meetings with a similar objective. PM Jacobs urges citizens to take part in the survey: “This is an opportunity to be heard on a platform that matters.” The survey runs on a website called SurveyMonkey.com and it contains eleven questions. Only one of them could provide some insight in the direction voters want to go:…
By Terrance Rey Mullet Bay will be sold for the third time in its history. First, the Mullet Bay property was sold to a stately gentleman named Kamal Asultani. He always reminded me of the actor Omar Sharif. Asultani operated Mullet Bay under the Sheraton brand at the time. Mullet Bay was subsequently sold in its entirety for a second time. Then to Hushang Ansari. An investor of Iranian descent just like Asultani. Now the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten wants to sell Mullet Bay. Banco de Caribe was previously successfully sold. The banking business was one of…
By Hilbert Haar Our story about the Pott rum factory shows that it is possible to have foreign investors come to the island that offer meaningful employment to locals. But the complaint is more often than not, rightly or wrongly, that foreign investors prefer to bring in employees from their own country, leaving local jobseekers on the sidelines. It does not have to be that way. The question is of course: if foreign investors see a business opportunity, why do St. Maarteners not see the same thing and act upon it? Related article: A nose for business Look for instance…
PHILIPSBURG — Fancy that. A foreign investor building a factory in St. Maarten where 29 out of 31 employees are Antillean. That’s not a pipedream: it really happened back in the late sixties of last century when a German company established West Indies Distillers in Pointe Blanche. The factory produced 30 million liters of rum each year. A small part was for local consumption, but the majority of the output was exported to Europe, with Germany as its most important market. The foreign investor in this story is H.H. Pott Nachfrg.Vertiebsgesellschaft MbH Rumhandelshaus. This company was established in 1848 as…
