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.…
Author: The Publisher
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…
PHILIPSBURG — Roger Lawrence has stepped down as Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication, citing health reasons. The Council of Ministers received Lawrence’s resignation during its meeting on Tuesday, July 26. On Friday, July 29, the resignation was finalized by national decree. Lawrence had already been out of commission for some time and during his absence his tasks were taken over by Public Health Minister Omar Ottley. He will continue to do so until a replacement for Lawrence has been sworn in. “After much thought and prayer I have decided to make my position as minister of TEATT…
PHILIPSBURG — Member of Parliament Raeyhon Peterson (Party for Progress, PFP) made mince meat of the accusations Minister Egbert Jurendy Doran (of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure, VROMI) made against him a week ago during an interview with Lady Grace in the radio broadcast The Breakfast Lounge. Minister Doran suggested that Peterson, in his function as acting head of Domain Affairs had been “instrumental” in giving a positive advice about Alegria’s request for the right of long lease to a water parcel near its Morgan Resort. Peterson said that, when he was removed from his position at Domain…
PHILIPSBURG — The Pro Soualiga Foundation recommends in a letter dated July 27 to the island Council of Statia and to the kingdom representative to withdraw a report written by mediators Suzy Camelia-Römer and Maria Liberia-Peters with the assistance of former Ombudsman Alba Martijn. The report evaluates the situation in Statia, after the Netherlands appointed a kingdom representative to govern the island and to sideline the Executive Council, the Island Council and the Lt. Governor in 2018. The mediators recommend restoring democracy in Statia after the elections in 2023. If that is not possible, they prefer higher supervision (that would…
PHILIPSBURG / NEW YORK — It’s over. Eliane Berwers has completed her three-week summer intensive program at the Dance Theater of Harlem. And what a three weeks it has been. Eliane proved herself as a committed dancer. So much so that one of her instructors told her mother, Christ’l Larmonie: “She is very disciplined and talented and she did very well.” Her dorm chaperone, a former dancer, added: “Eliane is very talented and she will make it if she continues like this.” Eliane ended the three-week experience with an hour of what the Dance Theater calls the culminating event, a…
PHILIPSBURG — Millions of people must have crossed the Prince Bernhard Bridge across the Fresh Pond in the course of the past ninety-odd years. The bridge is a part of St. Maarten’s patrimony, but information reaching us from within the Ministry of VROMI indicates that there are plans to remove the iconic structure and to replace it with a roundabout. That cannot be right. Recently, Lady Grace interviewed VROMI-Minister Egbert Doran on her radio program The Breakfast Lounge. While most of the attention went to Doran’s attack on Member of Parliament Raeyhon Peterson, he also made some remarks about the…
