PHILIPSBURG — Stay-over arrivals dropped by 66.7 percent in 2020 and cruise arrivals fell 77.3 percent last year, the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS) states in its annual report. “Cruise tourism performed relatively well in the first three months of 2020 but stopped completely beginning in the second quarter of the year. This forced many medium and large resorts to close their doors during the lockdown and border closure.” The manufacturing sector suffered a decline of 27.8 percent, after a 3.6 percent growth in 2019. This reflects a decline in yachts repair and service activities in line…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten’s real Gross Domestic Product declined by 22.4 percent in 2020. Curacao saw a drop of 19.3 percent it appears from the 2020 annual report of the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS). “During the second quarter of 2020 economic activity in both countries came practically to a standstill, as they implemented a border closure that lasted approximately three months and a total lockdown of approximately six weeks,” the report states. At the end of the year St. Maarten’s budget deficit amounted to 10.9 percent of GDP; in Curacao it was 14 percent, CBCS-director Richard…
PHILIPSBURG — Insurance Company Nagico will become 100 percent subsidiary of Peak Re (Peak Reinsurance Company), pending regulatory approval, NAGICO said in a press statement. Peak Re is a Hong Kong-based reinsurance specialist. On its website it reports 550 clients in more than seventy countries and $1.7 billion in gross written premiums per the end of 2019. The contacts between NAGICO and Peak Re date back to December 2014, when NAGICO first went in search of a strategic partner for more financial muscle to finance its expansion drift in Spanish-language markets like Puerto Rico and Latin-America. The chairman of the…
PHILIPSBURG — In an open letter to government, member of Parliament Claudius ‘Toontje’ Buncamper asks the question “Corporate Governance for whom exactly?” The open letter goes on to read as follows: Philipsburg – July 26th 2021 – It’s with much dismay that I read about the events that are surrounding the most recent dismissal of the Managing Director of the PJIAH and the 2 board members of the PJIAH. In a simple term I would say it’s disgraceful. Disgraceful because government professes to be transparent, integer and honest, but makes these decisions for which the motive is questionable for more…
[Publisher’s note: Achken Roberto Richardson writes a letter to the editor after reports were published that a mental healthcare patient was found dead in one of the police cells and a statement by Attorney-at-law Sjamira Roosberg that a mental patient can’t be detained without legal basis.] Dear Editor, This is unbelievable to read, as well as is unacceptable. Who is going to bear this responsibility? The Mental Healthcare Foundation? The Minister of Justice, the Minister of Health, the Police Department, the Government of Sint Maarten? I am no expert in this area, but being involved for over a decade with…
PHILIPSBURG — Curacao established its consumer foundation almost half a century ago, in 1975. The Fundashon pa Konsumidó provides information about price comparison and the quality of products and services and it also helps consumers access their rights. In St. Maarten the Windward Island Consumer Foundation of President Virgilio Brooks is dormant and an attempt by former Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Ingrid Arrindell to do something about this is gathering dust. Fast changing market should have given consumer protection the attention it deserves, but politicians seem to spend all their energy on bickering about the airport reconstruction project,…
PHILIPSBURG — Parliamentarian Christophe Emmanuel is at it again. This time he sent a letter of 600 words to the Integrity Chamber with the request to provide an opinion on the outcome of the tender for the airport reconstruction project. Emmanuel’s letter drew immediate criticism from Ohndhae Marlin, the son of MP William Marlin. Marlin wonders what Emmanuel thinks to achieve with his actions. “Delaying the start date for work at the airport to further frustrate the same local boys he so claims to be defending that need work on the island?” It remains to be seen whether the Integrity…
Dear Editor, It’s becoming a political norm now that whatever the government does, MP Christophe Emmanuel automatically has a criticizing article ready to publish. In his last article that he sent to the entire government, both COM and Parliament, the Governor, the Prosecutor and the Dutch government condemning the decision to choose a construction company to complete the renovation of our airport. What does MP Emmanuel hope to achieve here? Delay in the start date of the work at the airport to further frustrate the same local boys he so claims to be defending that needs work on the island?…
PHILIPSBURG — Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel on Thursday asked the Integrity Chamber to provide its opinion on whether the awarding of the reconstruction of the airport project to Ballast Nedam by the Supervisory Board of the Princess Juliana Airport operating company (PJIAE) constitutes an act or a failure by an administrative body or government entity to adhere to values and norms, legal requirements, or other obligations through which the interest of society, or the proper functioning of an administrative body or government entity could be harmed. His letter to the Integrity Chamber is the first of its kind…
PHILIPSBURG — Ballast Nedam is generally recognized as a Dutch construction company. There is however nothing Dutch about the chairman of the board or about Ballast Nedam’s parent company. The chairman of the board is Cenk Düzyol. The immediate parent company of Ballast Nedam is Renaissance Construction B.V. and the ultimate parent company is Rönesans Holding A.Ş., based in Turkey. Renaissance, a 100 percent daughter of Rönesans, obtained all shares in Ballast Nedam in 2015. Rönesans was established in 1993 in St. Petersburg in Russia. It ranks 23rd among the world’s top 250 contractors, The company is active in 28…
