~ Innovative and financially sound businesses is key to economic recovery and growth ~ GREAT BAY, St. Maarten — In the past five (5) years, St. Maarten has seen unprecedented challenges. From the devastation of Hurricane Irma to the ongoing pandemic, the community has seen severe socioeconomic challenges. As a learning organization, the Ministry of Finance strives to develop its staff and community through education in areas of finance and innovation as it is critical to economic resilience and development, both personally and for the nation. For this reason, the Ministry has helped to steer a variety of programs such…
Author: The Publisher
THE HAGUE — Curacao’s former Minister of Finance George Jamaloodin’s conviction to 30 years of imprisonment for ordering the murder of Pueblo Soberano-leader Helmin Wiels on May 5, 2013, has become irrevocable, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal in cassation on June 7. Jamaloodin’s attorney R.J. Baumgardt’s claimed that his client’s presumption of innocence had been violated, but the Supreme Court disagreed. In July 2018, the Common Court of Justice sentenced Burney ‘Nini’ Fonseca to 26 years of imprisonment for playing the role of ‘murder-broker’ as the man who accepted money from Jamaloodin to organize the murder of Helmin…
PHILIPSBURG — MP Romou says it goes without saying how extremely proud and elated she is about hearing the news that a young St. Maartener namely Kyeisha Laurence has been accepted to the prestigious Harvard Medical School. MP Romou explained that as she has dedicated most of her life to youth advocacy and having been actively involved with guiding, mentoring and shaping our youth on St. Maarten, she feels obligated to highlight and congratulate Kyeisha who was also a participant a couple of times in the Interscholastic idol competition which MP Romou organizes. Kyeisha she explained moved to the United…
Land grabLiterally anything is possible in St. Maarten. This time my column is about an example of how one can legally become the owner of a piece of land in an illegal way and – fortunately – what someone can do about it.Lawyer and Acting Governor Reynold Groeneveldt has written an instructive article about ‘prescriptive rights’. In that article, Mr. Groeneveldt gives a description of ‘prescriptive rights’.I quote and translate the description using Google Translate as follows. By means of the procedure of ‘prescriptive rights’ one can become the owner of part of movable and/or immovable property. Ownership can be…
PHILIPSBURG — The Progress Committee is concerned about the participation of UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services, in the construction of a new prison. This appears from the 43rd progress-report that covers the fourth quarter on 2021. “St. Maarten is already two years talking with UNOPS about their role in the execution of the detention plan and the construction of the new prison,” the report states. “But up to now nobody of that organization has visited St. Maarten to assess the local situation or to speak about their role in this process.” The report states that there is…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten’s economy could grow by as much as 14.3 percent this year, but the Central Bank warns that the length and the intensity of the war in the Ukraine could have a mitigating effect. “It is therefore likely that inflation will further increase and that the economic growth will be lower than projected,” the bank writes in its 2021 annual report. Things are nevertheless looking up for St. Maarten. The Central Bank expects a strong increase of foreign demand due to a significant increase of exports and an increased recovery of stay-over and cruise tourism. However, increased…
PHILIPSBURG — The Kingdom Council of Ministers will take a decision about the eight conditions St. Maarten will have to meet in exchange for permission to drop the 12.5 percent salary cut for government employees on June 24. So far, only three conditions have been made public and local politicians like MP Sarah Wescot-Williams demand that the government makes the remaining five conditions public as well. According to MP Wescot-Williams, State Secretary Van Huffelen demands that St. Maarten finances the effects of lifting the 12.5 percent-measure from its own budget, that it keeps the 25 percent salary cut for ministers…
It is a sign of the times when we see convicted former Port CEO Mark Mingo after five years of radio silence giving an interview about his conviction in the Court of First Instance on SOS Radio 95.9FM with host Billy D. His case is presently in appeal and we look forward to the outcome of that appeal case in June. In his Facebook Live show, suspended MP Claudius Buncamper rails against his prosecution which after 12 years is turning out to be nothing but persecution. Look at the two broadcasts and look for the similarities. There are many commonalities,…
PHILIPSBURG — The Court of Appeals acquitted suspended Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper in a ruling dated May 30 of tax fraud related to the Eco Green case. His wife, former Minister of Public health Maria Buncamper-Molanus was found guilty of similar charges in 2018. The Supreme Court confirmed her conviction in January 2021 but noted that her punishment – a 25,000 guilders (close to $14,000) fine and 240 hours for community service – ought to be lowered because the court took too long to handle her appeal on cassation. The acquittal in the Eco Green case is not the…
PHILIPSBURG — Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) completed the refinancing of its 2012-loan with a celebration at the Mimosa Sky Lounge on Rhine Road. The airport secured a $90 million loan package from lenders in St. Maarten (46 percent), Curacao (44 percent) and Aruba (10 percent). AIB Bank arranged the loan and the RBC Trust of Trinidad and Tobago functioned as the facility and security agent. The airport’s chief financial officer, Ben van der Klift said that the new loan is “an important step forward and another vote of confidence. This also underscores our transformation into an airport with strong…
