By Hilbert Haar Oh, oh, St. Maarten managed to generate some bad publicity again and the attempts by Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin to explain herself do not come across as utterly convincing. The story is this time, as most readers probably have learned by now, about the financing of repairs to the airport. The name of former MP Silvio Matser has not been mentions yet in this context but that is most likely only a matter of time. State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) lit the fire under this issue in his progress report about post-Irma reconstruction. The site koninkrijskrelaties.nu…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG -– On December 14th, the General Audit Chamber of the Netherlands released a focus study on the contribution of the Netherlands to the recovery and reconstruction of Sint Maarten. This report recognizes some of the challenges that the Government of Sint Maarten is experiencing in the recovery process. “The past months have taught us that the preparation and implementation of Trust Fund projects takes much more time and capacity than Sint Maarten and the Netherlands originally anticipated. The implementation of the projects is challenging, not because of a lack of will or commitment of the political leaders and civil…
PHILIPSBURG — The financial situation of the Kadaster and the island utility company GEBE is said to be in dire straits. According to reliable sources it was stated that the former Minister of Finance Richard F. Gibson had ordered the utility company, which is said to have reserves, to release some thirty million guilders to assist with financial situation of government. Prime Minister of St. Maarten Leona Marlin when questioned about the financial situation of the company stated at the Council of Ministers press briefing that the government does not have the funds to give back to GEBE. She alluded…
Dear Editor, St. Maarten needs to step up its marketing game! We are losing market share, and economic income to the competition. From news reports, St. Kitts for one is eating more and more of our lunch! Just take a look at what is reported in our daily newspaper: On Tuesday, December 18, 2018 we read that the M/Y LIMITLESS, the same mega yacht that inaugurated the expanded Simpsonbay Lagoon entrance (after Government successfully lengthened the Lejuez Bridge back in 2003), has now gone to St. Kitts to buy fuel???!??? Remember, this vessel has been at Yacht Club Isle de…
POND ISLAND — The project team for the new St. Maarten General Hospital continues to work on the execution of the Hospital construction project. “We maintain a close and positive contact with the three Extraordinary Commissioners managing the financial restructuring of INSO and its parent company Condotte. Based on correspondence between the new hospital project team and the Commissioners of INSO, we have agreed that a delegation from St Maarten will travel to meet in Italy early next year with the objective to discuss the future plans of INSO and how the financial restructuring efforts could impact the project. We…
PHILIPSBURG — The Minister responsible for Tourism Stuart Johnson has described the actions of Member of Parliament Rolando Brison for withholding funds that was to be paid to Caribbean Tourism Organization as an embarrassment to St. Maarten. “This has been a very embarrassing situation for our country and as a destination for wanting to promote our tourism product and rebuilding our tourism economy we cannot accept this irresponsible behavior,” said Johnson. He stated It was only recently that MP Rolando Brison had finally paid the bill which he owed for more than a year, which has resulted in the collection…
PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD — Over a week ago, the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten published its financial statements for 2017. In a press release the Bank announced that the 2017 financial statements of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) had recently been adopted by the meeting of Entitled Asset holders. A condensed version of these financial statements had been published on the CBCS website. The Bank stated in its release that the increase of the total balance of 2017 compared to the total balance of 2016 was especially related to the increase of the market price of…
Philipsburg — Telecom provider UTS does not have to offer services for phone lotteries to Smartplay, the company doing business as Robbie’s Lottery in St. Maarten. The Common Court of Justice rejected Smartplay’s appeal against an earlier court ruling in a decision that was published last week. More than ten years ago, on March 8, 2008, Smartplay entered into an agreement with UTS-parent company Radcomm to facilitate the sale of lottery tickets via SMS (text messaging). The agreement was for a period of three years and was extended several times with one year. On August 18, 2016, Radcomm informed Smartplay…
by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert It is a well-known fact among economists and aviation professionals that the growth of a region may depend on the development of its airport. You may start laughing, but Grand Case airport and French St.Martin are no exception. Call it a secondary, underdog, relief, or satellite airport and when you’re done with your outburst of laughter, take a look at the argumentation below. Aeroport Grande Case does have a realistic potential of being developed into a player of its own unique kind. As for the expression relief airport, the day after hurricane Irma’s passage, the airport…
By Hilbert Haar The General Audit Chamber-report about Dutch assistance to St. Maarten in the wake of Hurricane Irma reveals that one of the island’s key state-owned enterprises – utilities company GEBE – is in serious financial trouble. The report also suggests that GEBE is not too willing to cooperate with the World Bank. And lastly, it shows some questionable behavior by the government; in four years time it has practically depleted the company’s reserves and it is not paying its dues either. The World Bank has almost $11 million available to save GEBE from going broke, but the utilities…
