PHILIPSBURG — The prime ministers of St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba have reached an agreement with the Netherlands about adjustments to the draft law COHO (Caribbean Reform and Development Entity). On September 3, the new draft is on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers. After its approval, the draft law will be submitted to the parliaments of the Netherlands, St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba for debate and decision making. At that moment the draft law will become public. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs stated in press release issued by the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations (BZK)…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor (VSA), Omar Ottley held a meeting with club nightlife business owners, beach bar owners, directors and managers from Dutch Sint Maarten. The purpose of the meeting was to ensure a safe environment for patrons and to avoid COVID clusters within the respective establishment. Minister Ottley wanted the parties to understand the seriousness of COVID-19 and to give them time to establish the protocols moving forward. “ I will continue to say, we must work together to get through this pandemic” Minister Ottley stated. All parties acknowledged and underlined…
Now more than ever entrepreneurs need to know what it takes to get their business startup projects off the ground. StMaartenNews.com invited Clifford Illis to once again share his expert opinion with our readers. Illis is an experienced accountant and independent auditor with over 25 years of expertise and knowledge of accounting, tax consultancy, and auditing services on St. Maarten. Here is what Illis had to say to our readers…. Clifford Illis: “I hope this will be able to shed some light on your request regarding entrepreneurs.” When a person plans to start a company, they must first and foremost…
PHILIPSBURG — Public Prosecutor’s Office in St. Maarten has issued a press release stating that six illegal guns have been confiscated in the past 16 weeks. According to the press release these weapons are related primarily to armed robberies committed against Front Street jewelry stores. The weapons were confiscated by the St. Maarten Police Force, KPSM, in collaboration with the Prosecutor’s Office. These confiscations average at least one illegal firearm taken off the streets approximately every three weeks by law enforcement officials. The weapons were confiscated directly from suspects, found in (house) searches or from crime scenes. While the removal…
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…
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,…
