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Port St. Maarten set for major milestones

From left: Port St. Maarten CEO Mark Mingo and MP Theo Heyliger present a Port St. Maarten plaque to Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald, a strategic cruise partner.

 POINTE BLANCHE--Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo has announced two milestones for the port: it is expected to surpass St. Thomas for the first time ever in terms of number of cruise passengers, and it is expected to hit the two million mark Read more

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Caravanserai goes to anonymous buyer

PHILIPSBURG--A buyer who has opted to remain anonymous won the Caravanserai resort, land and apartments at a public auction held by Tjon Ajong and Associates at Pasanggrahan Beach Hotel yesterday morning.

This was the third time the assets had been put on auction and they sold for some US $14 million, in comparison to the initial asking price of $20 million.

Two bidders purportedly were in the running for the purchase, amidst a room of around 50 people.

The buyer's intentions could not be established and his representative at the auction, Chris van Amersfoort of HBN Law, declined to relay any information on his client's intentions or identity.

Roeland Zwanikken of BZSE Attorneys at Law/Tax Lawyers who represented seller Scotiabank said the bank was happy with the outcome and happy to have the situation behind it, even though the price is $3 million below the accrued principal mortgage in addition to other costs Read more

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Labour, Social Services Dept servers sent abroad to be fixed

~ Consideration to avoid gaps in permits ~

PHILIPSBURG--The servers at the Departments of Labour and Social Affairs are expected to be "up and running" in about two weeks, says Labour Minister Cornelius de Weever.

The minister said on Wednesday that the servers had been sent abroad to be fixed. The system went down about four weeks ago due to a power surge and persons have been unable to submit employment permit renewal requests Read more

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De Weever says visitor health fee can raise millions for health care

PHILIPSBURG--The introduction of a visitor health fee can raise millions for health care in St. Maarten, says Health Minister Cornelius de Weever.

He told reporters at Wednesday's Council of Ministers press briefing that a health fee of US $1 could be considered to be charged on airline tickets or cruise ships. With the 1,700,000 to 1,800,000 and projections for 2,000,000 cruise ship passengers and 500,000 stay-over visitors, St Read more

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UP candidate Matser to face tax-evasion charges

PHILIPSBURG--The criminal court case against local businessman Silvio Matser and his company Energizer N.V., which was initially scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed until December 3.

Matser, who is the owner of Energizer N.V., is charged with tax evasion to the amount of US $3.2 million, in connection with non-payment of income tax, social security premiums for workers and turnover tax on behalf of his construction company.

Matser is running in the parliamentary election as the number 23 candidate on United People's (UP) party slate.

Energizer's director was held and questioned on January 25, 2013, in connection with this tax investigation.

The formal charges include tax evasion and forgery of tax returns allegedly committed between January 1, 2006, and October 10, 2010, and alleged tax evasion over the fiscal years 2006 and 2007.

Energizer's 47-year-old director is denying the allegations Read more

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De Weever: New budget cuts nearly impossible

PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour Cornelius de Weever says budgetary amendments from his ministry are near impossible, as the ministry has reached a bare minimum and any additional cuts would not enable the ministry to execute the legislative tasks with which it is tasked.

He was attempting to explain why his ministry had not been able to comply with the budget demands as stated by the Committee for Financial Supervision.

"In order to pass the 2014 Budget, the private sector now pays its own fair share of health care premiums which provides medical insurance to their clients and family members for such a low price," De Weever said in a press release Tuesday.

De Weever made a request to amend the budget as it relates to the health care expenses of civil servants; to transfer these costs from the budget of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA to the budget of General Affairs or allocate them to the personnel budget of each respective Ministry by means of an allocation key.

He said the budget of VSA in particular was pegged to a year plan, including key performance indicators, and to an end-of-year report that accounts for every penny spent.

"I believe all other ministries that function without a year plan should reform and provide more accountability Read more

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Dennis updates MPs about tackling crime

PHILIPSBURG--Justice Minister Dennis Richardson gave Members of Parliament (MPs) updates on the Police's efforts to tackle crime in the community at a Central Committee meeting of Parliament on Monday. The meeting was scheduled to take place last week, but was postponed until yesterday, due to a lack of quorum.

Richardson said the country's crime levels are at a place where other countries in the immediate surrounding will be "jealous of." The police force has been tackling preventable crimes and have been making arrests and getting breaks in large cases Read more

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Concession given for 4th mobile service provider

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten's fourth mobile service concession has been granted officially to Elwaldo Arrindell, who was granted a licence in August 28, 2012, by former Minister of Telecommunication Romeo Pantophlet after initially having requested one in 1997.

The concession will allow him to operate, which can translate to a somewhat worrying development for established local providers TelCell and United Telecommunications Services (UTS).

Although Arrindell was not available for comment yesterday, he shared with The Daily Herald last year that, if successful, he hoped to launch a new cellular phone company by the end of 2013 Read more

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Minister Lake Applauds Nv Gebe For Providing Relief To Seniors

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake, applauds NV GEBE for remaining on track and providing seniors of the country who qualified relief which should be seen in their monthly utility bills.

Minister Lake took note of a NV GEBE press release announcing the news this week.

"NV GEBE has kept its promise to the seniors in our community Read more

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Fourth Mobile Telecom Provider Is Not Necessarily Good News

St. Maarten – The mobile telecommunications market in St. Maarten is in for a rough ride and an uncertain future after Elwaldo Arrindell’s company Beach Mart NV obtained a concession for the exploitation of a mobile telecommunication infrastructure. With the existing providers – TelEm and UTS – and another party ready to jump on the bandwagon – Brenda Wathey’s Corporate Innovations – the island may soon have four providers competing for the business of the roughly 67,000 mobile subscribers that make up the local market.

The concession Elwaldo Arrindell obtained could spell bad news for the TelEm Group of Companies Read more

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Voting In Today Election Poll Now Open – Send A Free Text Message To Vote

St. Maarten – Starting today, Chippie-users will begin to receive text messages for Today’s election poll. Chippie-users will be able to express their political preference for the August 29 elections via a free text message. Today has once again chosen UTS as its partner for this project because the company has the largest mobile customer base in St. Maarten.
UTS makes the poll technically possible by putting its network at our disposal. The company will start today sending our text messages to thousands of Chippie-customers Read more

Health Minister Say Permit Given For Expansion Of St. Maarten Medical Center

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Minister with the responsibility for Health, Social affairs and Labor, the Honorable Cornelius de Weever is of the opinion that politics is being played with the St. Maarten Medical Center.

Whilst addressing that subject at the Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday, Minister de Weever reiterated that the expansion of the St Read more

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Connor Gives Motivational Talk To Students

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry Executive Director, Claret Connor, gave a series of motivational talks to three of the new first form classes of the Sundial School on Tuesday, August 12th.

Under the theme "Let your Attitude determine your Altitude" Connor encouraged students to aim high, and that even though it was only their second day of high school, the right attitude would take them far.

"Speaking to the new students is something that I do annually," Connor says Read more

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Two Days Left To Nominate For Annual President Of Parliament Award

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – President of Parliament Hon. Gracita Arrindell says two days are left to consider nominating somebody for the Annual President of Parliament Award. The public and organizations have until Friday.

The application documents are on the parliament's website. Persons have until August 15, 2014 to submit their nominations.

The website address is: www.sxmparliament.org and can be found under the documents section on the right side of the site Read more

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Minister Lake Releases Vorst Cay Hill Property Vision For Public Housing And Job Creation Center

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake says in order for the country to move forward, one has to have a vision.

On Wednesday Minister Lake released an illustration of his vision for the Vorst property in Cay Hill. It includes public housing for young professionals who are studying abroad and would like to return home to work; and a commercial job creation center that would create jobs for the unemployed and those seeking work.

The commercial center includes a sewing center that could create 100+ jobs.

The Minister's vision entails persons sewing school uniforms, prison uniforms, hotels and many other businesses that require a uniform Read more

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Romain Laville At Odds With Statement From Up Candidate

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Independent Member of Parliament, the Honorable Romain Laville, who has opted not to run for the August 29th parliamentary elections, has reacted bitterly at the statements of Read more

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Unemployed Father Calls For Support With School Fees

Anonymous businessman helped him out, but there are others

St. Maarten – George Antoine Hodge is an unemployed father who struggles financially. With the new school year beginning today, there are school fees to be paid. He turned to Julian Rollocks who took him on a tour until they found a businessman (who wishes to remain anonymous) prepared to pay the school fees for his 16-year-old son George Jr.

Hodge is obviously happy with the support but he is also aware that there are many others on the island facing similar financial problems Read more

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Dp Removed Campaign Material In Belvedere, But: Roundabout Billboards Remain An Issue

St. Maarten – The police had to intervene and in the end, the Democratic Party yielded and took down its oversized political billboard at the Belvedere roundabout on Friday. Chief Commissioner Peter de Witte said that officers had checked the situation on Thursday and concluded that the billboard stood – as was obvious to everyone except the Democratic Party – on the roundabout.

On Wednesday, party-leader and Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams still declared that the situation did not fall within the description of a roundabout Read more

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Lenny Priest Wants Clarity About St. Maarten Medical Center

St. Maarten – Lenny Priest, leader of the One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP), has asked clarification from Public Health Minister Cornelius de Weever about the possible construction of a new hospital. In a letter dated August 6 (last week Wednesday), Priest notes that four years ago there was talk of an expansion of the existing St Read more

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Up-Candidate Terry Peterson: “A Vote For Frans Means Four More Years Of Laville”

St. Maarten – “A vote for Frans (Richardson – ed.) and the US Party is a vote for another unstable Romain Laville government,” Terry Peterson, the number 8 candidate on the list of the United People’s party (UP)  stated in a press release yesterday Read more

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Financial Supervision (Cft) Blames Four Ministries For Delay In 2015 Budget

St. Maarten – The 2015 budget will be ready by the end of the month, Finance Minister Martin Hassink told this newspaper last week. That is more than a month after the budget should have been submitted to the Council of Advice and to financial supervisor Cft, who should have received the draft by July 9. Four ministries still have to downsize their wish list for 2015 to make it fit within the financial plan for 2015.

The Cft notes in a letter dated July 15 to Minister Hassink that the deadline of September 1 for submitting the budget to Parliament is at risk Read more

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Marlin: “Up Is Ready To Rip The People Off”

National Alliance meeting draws a large crowd

St. Maarten - A large crowd came out to listen to the National Alliance party candidates as they launched their first political meeting in Sucker Garden on Saturday evening. NA-leader William Marlin called on the electorate to come out in numbers and vote for his party.

“Come August 29 make no mistake, don’t vote because of the green flags, because you were given 100 cents, vote because you need a decent honest government, with hard working ministers and parliamentarians who will look out for you every day Read more

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Mp Leonard Questions Pm On Alleged Winair Debt

St. Maarten – United People’s (UP) Party Member of Parliament is seeking answers from Winiar shareholder representative Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams about a supposed debt of $1.4 million owed to a company in Guadeloupe Read more

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Legal Policy Advisor Takes Pm To Court Over Dubious Suspension

Social Economic Council implodes under warring secretary-general

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – The Social Economic Council has virtually collapsed due to a conflict between its Secretary-General Gerard Richardson and legal policy advisor Arjen Alberts whose attorney Cindy Marica filed a lawsuit against the Minister of General Affairs Sarah Wescot-Williams yesterday to get clarity about his position Read more

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