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PHILIPSBURG--The Government of St. Maarten is mum on discussions the TelEm Group is having with prospective partners, declining to even provide information on who the company is currently engaged in discussions with.
Based on recent reports received by this newspaper regarding the possible conclusion of the talks with Digicel, the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication TEATT Claret Connor was asked about the status of the talks via the Press Secretariat.
The Secretariat responded indicating that the discussions between TelEm and prospective partners "are strictly governed by confidentiality agreements. As such, there is not much the company and/or the Shareholder (government) can say at this present time."
Asked whether the minister could elaborate on the outcome of the discussions with Digicel and indicate whether an agreement had been reached and what is the next step, the minister said via the Secretariat: "Negotiations with prospective partners are still ongoing. Due to the confidential nature of these discussions the outcome of these discussions cannot be announced at this time.
"If negotiation with one prospective partner does not have a concluding result negotiations will continue with other prospective partners in keeping with the partnering process in which negotiations may continue in a transparent manner... Due to the confidential nature of the ongoing discussions no details can be provided at this time."
When asked to give an indication on what date specifically the three month exclusive negotiation period with Digicel ended, the response was: "Due to the confidential nature of the ongoing discussions no information regarding dates and conclusions [of – Ed.] discussions can be provided at this time."
When asked who discussions were currently taking place with the response was: "Who the company is negotiating with cannot be disclosed at present. There is no established time-frame for the completion of these discussions which started in one form or the other over the past two years."
