To the forces with a hidden AGENDA and ULTERIOR MOTIVES! 1) Take warning the writing is on the wall! 2) Stop fanning, feeding and fueling anger, hurt and desperation! 3) stop the division of our wealth only among the FAVOURITE FEW and include the WEAK and NEEDY who are also part of the community and country St. Maarten! 4) first and foremost preserve, protect, and promote the INTEREST and DEVELOPMENT of our people before taking on that of the whole wide world! 5) last but not least: Charity starts at home! When your neighbours home is on fire wet yours!…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten’s has put decolonization once more on the political agenda; reason for StMaartenNews.com to look at available alternatives for St. Maarten’s current constitutional status. How do you go from autonomy – with supervision over your finances and your judicial system – towards a system whereby you have a bigger say without going completely independent?
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will drop 25 percent this year as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. This appears from a note written by a team of the International Monetary fund (IMF) after its visit to the island on June 19. The IMF assumes that financial support measures will remain necessary until at least December of this year, but that there is a risk that these measures will be needed even longer. At the end of this year, the country’s financing gap will be 429 million guilders ($139.7 million). Tax revenue in April-May dropped by 48…
PHILIPSBURG – In a press release dated June 23 the Ministry of Finance has announced new rules for payroll support; they are retroactively effective per June 1. The new rules follow the recommendation by financial supervisor Cft to implement a 1:1 ratio for turnover loss versus payroll support. The new rules make the payroll support program less expensive and they negatively affect all qualifying companies. The payroll support is now set at a maximum of 60 percent of SZV-wages with a maximum of 5,651.36 guilders ($3,157.18) per month. Companies that can prove turnover losses between 20 and 59 percent will…
By Hilbert Haar Same dog and not even a different hat; that is the best description I can come up with for the so-called research of UP faction leader Grisha Heyliger-Marten into the matter of decolonization. Heyliger-Marten recently approached me with the offer to send me her research about this topic. Always ready to keep an open mind, I gave her my email address. I subsequently received an email with a link to the research, but when I clicked on it I got a message that labeled the link as suspicious. I informed Heyliger-Marten about it, saying that I was…
Mr. Editor, I listened with great interest to the radio interview given by former member of Parliament, Mr. Theo Heyliger, on Monday, June 22, 2020. Firstly, it is excellent to see Mr. Heyliger in good health after his diagnosis in 2019 and I wish him continued recovery and health. Media Blitz This is the second interview given by the former MP in a week, and while it was unclear what the overall purpose of the media blitz was, after the first interview, and subsequent press releases by the party he once led, I think the people can see the story…
PHILIPSBURG – The owner of NIBanc, Hushang Ansary, has requested the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten to withdraw the banking license. After thirty years, the curtain falls on the investment bank that is a subsidiary of Banco di Caribe. With his private equity firm Parman International, 93-year-old American Hushang Ansary owns ENNIA, Banco di Caribe and National Investment Bank (NA) NV, known as NIBanc. The St. Maarten offices are located at Banco de Caribe and will remain open for advice on investments. NIBanc began operations on March 30, 1990, as a part of the Dutch investment bank NIB…
PHILIPSBURG — “Their message is fair and it is clear,” said Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper about the protest by employees that took to the streets on Monday morning to air their dissatisfaction about what was deemed unfair. He understands that there is a crisis and as a result sacrifices must be made, said MP Buncamper. “In my opinion, the biggest mistake the Dutch Government made was to set the requirements in such a way, where it is impossible.” Buncamper alluded to the case regarding the verdict by the judge in the Court of First Instance where he ruled that…
PHILIPSBURG – Air Belgium wil in de loop van volgend jaar op de voormalige Nederlandse Antillen gaan vliegen. Dat heeft de Belgische luchtvaartmaatschappij gisteren bekendgemaakt tijdens een perspresentatie. Air Belgium is klaar om uit te breiden en plant nieuwe routes. Gisteren kondigde CEO Niky Terzakis de lancering aan van een nieuwe bestemming, Mauritius, medio december 2020, vanaf Brussels Airport met twee wekelijkse vluchten. Het bedrijf kijkt ook naar vluchten naar één bestemming op de Nederlandse Antillen en naar verschillende luchthavens in de Verenigde Staten, vluchten die gepland staan in 2021. Als Air Belgium naar het Caribisch deel van het Nederlandse…
PHILIPSBURG — Air Belgium intends to fly to the former Netherlands Antilles in the course of next year. The Belgian airline announced this yesterday during a press presentation. Air Belgium is ready to expand and plans new routes. Yesterday CEO Niky Terzakis announced the launch of a new destination, Mauritius, in mid-December 2020, from Brussels Airport with two weekly flights. The company is also eyeing flights to one destination in the Dutch Antilles and to several airports in the United States, flights that are scheduled to start in 2021. If Air Belgium flies to the Caribbean part of the Dutch…
