PHILIPSBURG – St. Maarten is the only member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) that can be considered a risk to the framework of anti-money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism. That sobering message came on Thursday morning from Dawne Spicer, the CFATF’s executive director during a central committee meeting about cross-border money transfers. “It is important to look at the legislation,” Spicer warned, adding that the fourth mutual evaluation of the situation in St. Maarten is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. “That evaluation deals with the implementation of the legislation.” The central…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG—The entire Dutch Kingdom will support the interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaido said Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin during the Council of Ministers Press Conference on Wednesday. According to her certain actions are being taken to ensure Venezuelans have access to food and other commodities. What was not mentioned is if there will be funding by the Netherlands to take care of the Venezuelans who enter into the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles. Prime Minister Romeo-Marlin has promised to send a press release to the media houses on the island of any updates. Quite recently there were reports that…
PHILIPSBURG – The harbor currently has $25 million in liquid assets, its Chief Financial Officer Ton van Kooten told members of the parliamentary committee for tourism and /economic affairs on Wednesday morning. He said that up to august 2017 the port was operating close to break-even but that Hurricane Irma caused the company to close the year with a $10 million loss. In 2018, the port booked a modest profit of $1.9 million. While the port is able to pay its operational costs, Van Kooten noted that for a $300 million-facility a profit of just $1.9 million is marginal. Minister…
PHILIPSBURG – United St. Maarten party MP Frans Richardson suggested that during a central committee meeting on Tuesday that GEBE establish a new company for the production of renewable energy and give the people of St. Maarten the opportunity to participate in it. “People would love to get a return on investment in their own country,” the MP said. Richardson also asked what the possibilities are for local banks to finance Gebe’s needs. He furthermore addressed the issue of renewable energy. “How far is Gebe with its plan for that 4 Megawatt solar park? It is time for Gebe to…
PHILIPSBURG – Utilities company GEBE is looking for a new insurance broker after it found out that its pre-Irma insurance covered damages caused by hail and snow but not damages caused by wind speed, the company’s chief Financial Officer, Iris Arrindell told a stunned parliamentary central committee on Tuesday afternoon. In spite of this rather awkward revelation, Gebe’s management team – consisting next to Arrindell of Chief Executive Officer Kendrick Chittick and Chief Operation Officer Veronica Jansen-Webster – received little criticism from parliamentarians who showered the managers and Vromi-minister Miklos Giterson with questions (see related story). The meeting will continue…
PHILIPSBURG – The central committee of parliament devoted a bit more than an hour to the continuation of a meeting that was held exactly a year ago on Tuesday. Topic of the meeting was the purchase of Cable TV by telecom provider TelEm and the subsequent dismissal of Cable TV personnel. To the chagrin of MP Frans Richardson (United St. Maarten party) only Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin showed up as the shareholder representative for TelEm. Richardson would have wanted to see the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication, Stuart Johnson, in this meeting as well. Romeo-Marlin told the…
By Hilbert Haar Come Thursday, the unity of the governing coalition of United Democrats and the St. Maarten Christian Party will be put to the test. If everybody shows up and toes the party line, the motion of no confidence tabled by the opposition will fail. For the country, that would be a piece of good news because with the exception of the National Alliance and the United St. Maarten party nobody is waiting for another change of the guard. The tactics of the opposition are on a certain level quite mysterious. On January 21, NA-MP Emmanuel announced a motion…
PHILIPSBURG – Opposition parties National Alliance (NA) and United St. Maarten party (USp) launched a frontal attack on the position of Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin on Monday afternoon during the continuation of a parliament-meeting about the financing of reconstruction efforts at the Princess Juliana International Airport. After NA-MP William Marlin read the motion, parliament’s president MP Sarah Wescot-Williams adjourned the meeting until Thursday afternoon – a move perceived by some as a delaying tactic. Formally, the adjournment is designed to give ministers the opportunity to formulate answers to questions posed by members of parliament. The motion was signed by all…
PHILIPSBURG – Opposition members of parliament were firing on all cylinders during Monday afternoon’s continued meeting about the financing agreement for the airport-reconstruction. Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin and Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Stuart Johnson were on the receiving end of their at times vicious remarks that culminated in a motion of no-confidence against the prime minister (see related article). The prime minister opened the floor, providing answers to questions posed by MPs during a meeting on January 21. Management and board of the airport fully support the financing plan that offers a $50 million grant to the government…
Philipsburg, St. Maarten, February 4, 2019 – Amidst reports of accomplishments by the Government of St. Maarten as far as the Trust Fund is concerned, the debate continues as to the speed or lack there-of in the entire process of financing of the reconstruction on St. Maarten via the World Bank. We have had reports regarding the progress, the pace and the accomplishments. Just recently someone wrote an article and compared the World Bank structure on St. Maarten for the reconstruction as “Met een kanon op een mug schieten”. This could be freely translated into “cracking nuts with a sledge…
