On St. Maarten, banks and the government are advising the general population to use guilders as much as possible, as a way to save dollars. I agree wholeheartedly with this advice. Here is why. When the dollars stop flowing into our economy, using guilders for our daily transactions will keep our economy going and save the dollars to pay for our imports. When those dollars run out, we will have to use our ‘gold backed’-Guilder to buy new dollars to pay for new imports. Hence the title of this article, The Golden Guilder.
Author: The Publisher
By Cdr. Bud Slabbaert In these difficult times when we know that economic hardships have to be countered and solutions need to be found, there are realistic opportunities. There is one development model that may be the solution to contribute to three needs that are important under the current and short-term circumstances: a desperate need for income when employment is not available a cornerstone for diversification of an economy rejuvenating or strengthening the middle class. It may come in two steps. The first step would be the development of ‘home industry’ or originally called ‘cottage industry’ and sometimes mentioned as…
By Hilbert Haar The Indian Merchants Association (IMA) is among the private sector organizations that chose the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) not even a week ago “to speak on its behalf for continued representation and information.” But only a few days later the IMA broke ranks and issued a press release of its own under the ominous headline ‘Economic doom, mass closures and layoffs on the horizon for St. Maarten’. As far as content goes, the press release does not differ significantly from what the SHTA communicated earlier. But there is more to it. One of the…
~ Economic Doom, Mass Closures and Layoffs on the Horizon for Sint Maarten. ~ PHILIPSBURG — In reference to the proposed draft Stimulus Plan, which was made public, the Indian Merchants Association (IMA), SMTA, SHTA and SMMTA expresses its shock at the callous disregard of St. Maarten employees and businesses in general and the economy in particular during these unprecedented testing times of crisis in the form of a Global Pandemic. While the focus of the policy makers has been mainly on people who can face unemployment or self-employed persons, it fails to address the real issues and hardships of…
By Hilbert Haar To write that these are challenging times qualifies as the understatement of the century. But here we are, smack in the middle of an unprecedented crisis that has turned all of our lives upside down. The only certainty we have right now is that nothing is certain anymore. Businesses are teetering on the brink of extinction and when businesses go down their employees go with them. When there is no income and all reserves are exhausted there will be no more food on the table. It’s a bloody nightmare, no two ways about it. And in the…
PHILIPSBURG – Within three to six months 45 percent of workers currently employed in the private sector will lose their jobs. This appears from a survey among 580 businesses by the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade association (SHTA). “Extrapolated to all active businesses this would mean the total number of unemployed could grow to well over 9,000,” the SHTA says in a press statement. The dramatic outcome of the survey assumes a best-case scenario – in other words, reality could turn out to be even worse. Within 72 hours, 580 companies reacted to the SHTA’s call for participation in the…
PHILIPSBURG – Poor people in St. Maarten run a high risk of contracting severe symptoms of the corona-virus (COVID-19) according to Drs. Raymond Jessurun of the St. Maarten Anti-Poverty Platform and the St. Maarten Consumers Coalition. Jessurun expressed his concerns during a press conference last week Thursday, on March 26. Jessurun said that 94 percent of the population lives in “poor and needy households” and that the majority of these people are at risk for ailments like high blood pressure and obesity, while others already suffer from cardiovascular diseases or diabetes. “If their immune system is weakened and they are…
Prime Minister & Chair of the EOC Silveria Jacobs Updates on COVID-19 Developments MARCH 29, 2020: People of St. Maarten, both at home and abroad, I hereby address you, as Prime Minister and Chair of the EOC (Emergency Operations Center), in an update for today Sunday, March 29, 2020, as part of the process to keep the community of St. Maarten informed about the latest developments and Government’s COVID-19 preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response measures. In a meeting of the EOC held today, March 29, 2020, on increasing measures to ensure the safety and security of the population in this…
PHILIPSBURG – “We are one Kingdom, we are all in the same boat and will help each other,” said Minister Raymond Knops (CDA) of the Interior and Kingdom Relations ten days ago. But after the reunion of the Kingdom Council of Ministers, last Friday, he pointed to the islands’ own responsibility and said that if the Netherlands makes money available, it should come back into the Dutch treasury. St. Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba have asked the Netherlands for help to deal with the corona crisis on the islands. Aruba has forty registered corona infections since Saturday morning. None of the…
PHILIPSBURG – The Board Financial Supervision (CFT) has advised the Kingdom Council of Ministers (KCOM) to allow St. Maarten to deviate from article 15 of the consensus kingdom law financial supervision. The CFT is however unable to advise how far the country should be allowed to deviate, due to a lack of pertinent information. The CFT sent its advice to the KCOM in a letter dated March 24. Article 15 of the financial supervision law stipulates that the country’s budget has to be balanced. The interest burden on capital investment loans is capped at 5 percent of the average state…
