PHILIPSBURG — General Pension Fund APS acquired Mary’s Fancy and the De Castro properties on L.B. Scott Road in 2014 for 4.4 million guilders ($2,458,000) with the intention to develop them for commercial use. Unfortunately, the conditions for further development soon worsened to a point where APS had to put the project on hold. According to the 2020 annual report the original projection was to complete the project by the third quarter of 2022. Renovating the monuments at Mary’s Fancy are part of the project. APS intended (and still intends) to renovate the plantation house, the boiling house, the servants…
Author: The Publisher
WILLEMSTAD — Curacao wants to become a dominant player in the market of renewable energy, NOS-correspondent Dick Drayer reports, but the apparent plans to build windmill parks off the North coast of Curacao quickly met with an avalanche of criticism. What is the plan exactly? A floating park of windmills that produces 5 to 6 gigawatt of electricity by 2035, more than enough to cover Curacao’s daily energy needs of 130 megawatt. The plan is to convert the surplus of energy into hydrogen and to export it in the region or even to the Netherlands. The Dutch research vessel Fugro…
The intention to appoint two full-time directors at the Cadastre next to the managing director that is already in place has raised serious concerns with at least one Member of Parliament, the formidable Grisha Heyliger-Marten (independent). The MP says that these appointments will cut deeply into the Cadastre’s net results. Others, like former director Clemens Roos, offer a different perspective: a financial director who reports directly to the supervisory board is a recipe for disaster. Two captains on one ship is never a good idea. The question nobody has asked so far is why the Cadastre sees the need…
PHILIPSBURG — Independent MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten want Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion to put the recruitment of a full-time Chief Financial Officer and a Chief Operations Officer at the Cadastre on hold. The MP states in a press release that these appointments would put a serious dent in the Cadastre’s net result. On April 3, MP Heyliger-Marten sent a letter to Minister Ardwell via the president of parliament, Siddharth Bijlani, asking for information about the Cadastre based on article 14.2 of the institution’s articles of incorporation. On May 23, parliament received the requested information about the Cadastre’s administration and its…
By Hilbert Haar I have written this more than once but this seems an opportune moment to repeat it: freedom ends where it intrudes upon the freedom of others. Unfortunately, the prime ministers of St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba seem to have made it their business to intrude upon the freedom of their citizens by refusing to make marriage between partners of the same sex possible. St. Maarten and Curacao don’t even abide by a ruling of the European Human Rights Court that says that countries that prohibit same sex marriages have to offer an alternative like a legally regulated…
PHILIPSBURG — The turnover of Winair more than doubled in 2022 to €28.6 million (almost $31.2 million) compared to the €13.7 million ($14.9 million) of the year before. Profit before taxes was €1.5 million ($1.64 million). This appears from the annual report State Participations 2022 published by the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Because Winair still has negative equity of €2 million ($2.18 million) the company will not pay any dividend to its shareholders. That the airline is doing very well indeed appears from its results in the first quarter of 2023. Turnover increased by 35 percent, the number of flights…
MARIGOT — Former mayor Albert Fleming-Romney passed away at the age of 86 at the hospital in Marigot on Monday due to heart failure. Fleming was Marigot’s mayor for 24 years, from 1983 until 2007. Louis Mussington, the current president of the Collectivité of Saint Martin, offered his condolences in a written statement “with deep sadness and a heavy heart.” “This news has plunged our community in an ocean of sorrow. “He was a child of the land and he had a strong connection with every citizen of Saint Martin, with every family.” Mussington stated that Fleming was more than…
It is tempting to blow our horn in triumph about a report that places St. Maarten second on the Caribbean Investment Climate Index. Finally something to be proud of. It is also be tempting to use such a publication as a tool to mask all the shortcomings that hamper our economy. Local entrepreneurs will most likely raise their eyebrows very high after reading this news, because there is a lot of room for improvement in the way our government and its vast bureaucracy deal with the private sector. The labor market is a prime example. While the investment index labels…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten is for the first time since its introduction in 2021 placed on the Caribbean Investment Climate Index, an initiative of the Economic Bureau Amsterdam. The index measures the investment climate in seventeen Caribbean countries and St. Maarten makes its first appearance in the second spot, behind index-leader Aruba. The Economic Bureau Amsterdam previously did not have sufficient data to measure St. Maarten’s investment climate but it was now possible to assess the situation “because the availability of data has improved.” Aruba is at the top of the list with 68.8 points, followed by St. Maarten with…
PHILIPSBURG — Hans van de Velde succeeds Michael Cleaver as Chief Executive Officer of Winair. Cleaver was at the helm of the airline for twelve years. He retired from his position per July 1, “leaving behind a legacy of operational excellence and transformative achievements,” the company writes in a press release. Global consulting firm Deloitte led the search for Cleaver’s successor. The supervisory board announced the appointment of Van de Velde, “a seasoned airline specialist poised to lead Winair into an exciting future.” Cleaver postponed his retirement twice when events impacted the island and the regional aviation sector. In November…
