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>HARBOUR VIEW:--- On November 5, 2014, His Excellency the Governor of Sint Maarten, drs. E.B. Holiday, had a meeting with Mr. Theo Heyliger, who had been appointed as formateur on October 6th, 2014.
During the meeting, the formateur updated the Governor on the status of the process to form a new government. The formateur informed the Governor on the developments surrounding the compilation of the candidates list for the posts of Prime Minister, Ministers, and Minister Plenipotentiary which is nearing completion.
The formateur requested an extension of his commission to form a new government Read more

style="text-align: center;">Lets Move a Step Forward

PHILIPSBURG:--- The President of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams called on all Members of Parliament to improve the image and perception of St. Maarten's Parliament which she said has been criticized.
Wescot Williams said that on November 5th, 2014 a central committee meeting of Parliament could not be held due to a lack of quorum, she further stated that when it comes to dealing with legislations from government Members of Parliament should put aside their political differences and deal with the legislations in order to send back a report to the government Read more

Pss N.V. 35Th Anniversary Of Post Office Director Antonia Wilson

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Management and staff of Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS N.V.) sprung a 35th Anniversary Day surprise for Interim Director, Ms. Antonia Wilson, at the main post office branch Tuesday.

Saba-born, Ms. Wilson, has been an integral part of postal services on St. Maarten ever since she joined the forerunner to the present company, on 1st November 1979.

During her 35 years in service she has been recognized for her dedication with several promotions, the latest being Retail Director of the Windward Island for Nieuwe Post Netherland Antilles (NPNA).

Manager, Commercial and Business Development, Ms Read more

Chta President Attends Cruise Line Celebrations To Foster Improved Cooperation In Caribbean

PHILLIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Emil Lee, President of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), and General Manager of Princess Heights Hotel, St. Maarten, attended the naming celebration for the Royal Princess and the launch of Princess Cruises 50th Anniversary celebrations here.

"Accepting the invitation to attend the cruise line's celebration is part of CHTA's mission to broaden and improve cooperation with key stakeholders in the Caribbean," Mr Read more

Pm Encourages Community To Commemorate And Celebrate St. Maarten's Day Celebrations, "Wear Your St. Maarten Colors, Fly Your Flags, And Show Your Pride"

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Caretaker Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams encourages the community to show their support for the celebration of the National Holiday on the eleventh of November.

The Prime Minister stressed for the community of St. Maarten to come out in force to celebrate St. Maarten's Day "I would like to urge the community to Celebrate St Read more

Governor Holiday Updated By Formateur Theo Heyliger

HARBOUR VIEW, St. Maarten – On November 5, 2014, His Excellency the Governor of Sint Maarten, drs. E.B. Holiday, had a meeting with Mr. Theo Heyliger, who had been appointed as formateur on October 6th, 2014.

During the meeting, the formateur updated the Governor on the status of the process to form a new government.

The formateur informed the Governor on the developments surrounding the compilation of the candidates list for the posts of Prime Minister, Ministers, and Minister Plenipotentiary which is nearing completion.

The formateur requested an extension of his commission to form a new government.

Governor Holiday as a result extended the commission for Mr Read more

Letter From St. Maarten’S Council Of Ministers To Rutte And Plasterk: No Cooperation With Additional Screening

St. Maarten – The Council of Ministers will not cooperate with the instruction to Governor Holiday to subject candidate-ministers for the new cabinet to additional screening. In a letter, signed by outgoing Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams, the council makes this position clear to Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk Read more

Chamber Of Commerce To Strengthen St. Maarten-Panama Ties

St. Maarten – With the goal of strengthening the economic ties between St. Maarten and Panama, Claret Connor, Executive Director of the St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry will represent the island of St. Maarten at the 18 Conference of Free Zones of the Americas 2014. “Our economic engagement is essential to the trade and investments agenda with countries such as Panama in particular, and can only result in stronger economic growth and greater prosperity for St Read more

Editorial - Shape up

Once again there was no quorum for a scheduled plenary session of the Parliament of St. Maarten (see related article). On this occasion it regarded formalising the Intellectual Property Bureau, which may not seem like an urgent matter but is no doubt important for whoever is in need of its services.

Moreover, for Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Ted Richardson it was an obvious waste of precious time. Only six of the 15 elected representatives signed in for the meeting, two fewer than required.

Of the five opposition members, US leader Frans Richardson and NA's Christophe Emmanuel were present Read more

St. Maarten formally objects to instruction

THE HAGUE/PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten's caretaker Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams confirmed in a letter to the Dutch Government on Monday that St. Maarten will not cooperate to execute the instruction given to Governor Eugene Holiday to hold off on the ratification of the appointment of the next Council of Ministers until after a profound screening of the candidate ministers.

In her letter, addressed to President of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Anouchka van Miltenburg and sent also to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk, Wescot-Williams outlined the reasons the St Read more

Aruba instruction focus in today’s Parliament debate

THE HAGUE--The Democratic Party D66 in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament and the liberal democratic VVD party will be diametrically opposing each other on the validity of the July 2014 instruction to Aruba during a debate with Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk today, Thursday.

The finances of the Aruba Government will prominently feature in today's meeting which takes place at the request of the Second Chamber's Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations to discuss financial supervision in the Dutch Kingdom, including St Read more

No quorum stalls meeting on Intellectual Property Bureau

PHILIPSBURG--Only six Members of Parliament (MPs) were signed in for the plenary session of Parliament to formalise the Intellectual Property Bureau on Wednesday afternoon, two short of the quorum of eight MPs needed for the meeting to start.

The meeting now will have to be reconvened by Chairwoman of Parliament MP Sarah Wescot-Williams within four days (four times 24 hours) as stipulated by Parliament's Rules of Order Read more

style="text-align: center;">PM/President of Parliament dispatched letter to the Dutch Second Chamber on Instructions given to St. Maarten's Governor

PHILIPSBURG:---- The Prime Minister and President of St. Maarten's parliament penned a four page letter to the Dutch second chamber informing them of the standpoint of St. Maarten's Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams states clearly in her letter that the Council of Ministers on St Read more

Mixed Opinion On Legal Employer Of Coliseum Casino Workers

St. Maarten – The current plight of the former employees of Coliseum is a mess created by Parliament, according to union head Theophilus Thompson, and a “tricky” situation according to legal experts consulted by Today yesterday after the former employees showed up at our offices on Monday evening to explain their dilemma.

The employment of the former employees in question—most of which have worked at that same casino for over a decade—were terminated on Monday, “abruptly and without notice” according to them Read more

Formateur Heyliger: Reports About Gumbs Are Speculative

St. Maarten – Formateur Theo Heyliger has labeled media reports suggesting that Marcel Gumbs could become the next prime minister as speculative. In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Heyliger noted that he has not completed the names of the candidate ministers for presentation to Governor Drs Read more

Mps Unable To Give Update On Government Formation To Youth Parliament 

St. Maarten – As President of the St. Maarten Youth Parliament, Dwayne Griffith submitted to St. Maarten Parliament a motion, requesting an update on the current situation with government and the steps being taken to establish the new Council of Ministers. However, the MPs present were unable to give any information on the developments to the Youth Parliament, as many were not privy to what was taking place. Members of the Youth Parliament met with Parliament members at the Central Committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss the developments in government formation with regard to the instruction for the screening of candidate-ministers from the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague.

“Our faction cannot provide any insight as to whether a list of ministers has been put forward… neither do we know the standards by which they will be screened,” said MP William Marlin Read more

Lakes Book Is Catalyst For Debate On St. Maartens Future

St. Maarten – USM will be hosting a presentation on “Six 4 nine” a book by local author Jose Lake on November 6 from 7:00 to 9:00pm in the USM lecture Hall. This will be followed by a panel discussion.

In his book “Six 4 Nine,” local author Joseph Lake Jr. champions independence as the main solution to the problems of Country St. Maarten and Collectivité St. Martin. He argues that being colonies is not in the interest of the people who live on the island.

“A patriotic book is a cry, a critique, and a challenge; it tries in these three tonalities to convey the author’s prophetic opinion on the current state of his society Read more

Arnia Now Has A Wide Range Of Symbolic Items

St. Maarten – Ten years ago when St Maarten’s day was celebrated, the Management of Arnia’s Bookstore only had two symbolic items on sale, now as November 11 approaches, they have 57 items available.

“According to visitors to the island, this is the only store that has so many national flags on sale,” said Henry Janvier, the proprietor of the small business establishment.

“We started then with the table cloth flag and then eventually the small flag that was flown on cars,” he pointed out Read more

Gebe And Telecom Providers Meet Wednesday To Discuss Underground Cables

St. Maarten—A meeting is carded for Wednesday between the shareholder representative of Gebe and stakeholders in the telecommunications industry to discuss having all telecommunications and power cables placed underground to avoid power outages as was the case with the recent passing of hurricane Gonzalo that left numerous households without power.

Following the passage of hurricane Gonzalo, minister with responsibilities for Gebe Murice Lake announced his intention to restructure the company and to look into having the cables placed underground Read more

European Commission cuts forecasts

BRUSSELS--The euro zone will need another year to reach even a modest level of economic growth, the European Commission said on Tuesday, calling on Germany to help as Chancellor Angela Merkel again rejected a spending spree.

The EU executive cut its forecasts, saying the euro zone economy would expand by 0.8 percent this year, 1.1 percent next year and by 1.7 percent in 2016 -- a level the Commission said six months ago would be achieved next year. The delay in the upturn was due to drag on the economy from France and Italy.

"There is no single and simple answer Read more

Mussington: ‘Taxes hurting the small man, unemployed’

MARIGOT--President of Movement for Advancement of the People (MAP) Louis Mussington said Tuesday he condemned the "hurried" decision made by the Territorial Council last week to introduce three new tax measures, the controversial 30-per-cent Revenu Solidarité Active (RSA) levy for one, saying this will again "hurt the small man, the unemployed and those in despair, who are already suffering."

He said since the Collectivité had the competence in 2007 to write its own fiscal policy, it has failed to come up with a tax policy that's fair.

"Every time there is an increase in public charges, we rush through new measures, as in this case, and it always hurts the small man," he said Read more

Youth Parliament wants more of a role in decision-making

PHILIPSBURG--The Youth Parliament wants a more active role in the decision-making process of the country.

A delegation of the Youth Parliament, headed by Dwayne Griffith, presented a motion requesting the possibility to make recommendations on the findings of the various integrity reports to the Parliament of St. Maarten on Tuesday afternoon in a Central Committee meeting in Parliament House.

The "emergency" meeting during which the motion was presented to the Parliament was requested by the Youth Members of Parliament (YMPs) Read more

First workshop held on revitalisation of Marigot

MARIGOT--Third Vice-President Wendel Cocks presided over the first workshop and meeting on Friday, October 31, with the consortium of business partners, including Semsamar, engaged in the study to restructure and revitalise downtown Marigot as announced in early 2014 by President Aline Hanson.

This group of experts will be working with the elected officials and technicians of the Collectivité on the project Read more

USM Hosting Book Presentation Six for Nine.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The University of St. Martin (USM) will be hosting a presentation on the book "Six 4 Nine" written by Mr. Joseph Lake Jr. followed by a panel discussion. Six 4 Nine is about the people of St. Martin, it argues that the Country and Collectivité are colonies that are not in the interest of the people of St. Martin. The book champions independence as the main solution to the problems on the island.
A patriotic book is a cry, a critique, and a challenge; it tries in these three tonalities to convey the author's prophetic opinion on the current state of his society Read more