SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – United People's (UP) Party Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Maurice Lake is preparing to send a letter through the Chairman of Parliament to the Minister of Finance about getting rid of the expat ruling which is costing Government more than half a million guilders.

"As a country, Government has to get serious with the expat agreement. I will address this law in the House of Parliament.

As a representative of the people, we need to start making firm decisions in the best interest of cutting cost and implementing improved incentives for our young professionals in order to bring them back home to move this country forward.

"The Public and Private sectors are using this law right now. Companies are bringing in top level staff and they are allegedly hardly paying wage taxes.

Law firms are also representing various clients, but there are Government Ministries also misusing this law.

The law on this topic is incomplete, no limitations on how far back one can claim; persons were employed without this agreement are now requesting it retroactive in court.

Government is spending millions annually in scholarships and we need to address this issue now. Applicants are from everywhere. Aren't our local young professionals not good enough to qualify?

"In the last Budget Debate, I asked the Minister of Finance how many persons are making use of it and what is it costing Government in terms of unpaid wages which at that time he was still researching from both the public and private sectors.

We need to start restoring HOPE in our young local professionals and implement better improved incentives to encourage them to come back home to serve their country.

"Presently, Government has an "Instroom beleid" as an incentive policy to encourage our young professionals to return home in which covers a 15-25% toelage for a year, moving cost, belonging cost, and a one way ticket.

Imagine, other outside skilled professionals get house rent and other incentives and hardly pay wage taxes from the same Government that supposed to be encouraging better incentives for our young local professionals who we send away to study on scholarships.

That's why we have a lot of our local returned professionals having no other choice than to live back home with their parents.

"As a new MP, I would like to change that for our young local professionals which should be treated better and offer better incentives and affordable housing.

Government need to set a different trend in this area and start leading by example by promoting and giving a better incentive package for our own skilled local young professionals.

"I will be working very close with Government to address this issue but also to work on improving our young professional's data base to meet the needs and demands of the public and private sector. I have a lot of data and I will present it to Government.

"During the campaign I have met a lot of our young local professionals who are home with Master's and other degrees, and they are jobless, and feeling demotivated.

All they are looking for is an opportunity to put their skills into effect instead of being labelled over qualified in their own country that sent them away on a scholarship to study," MP Hon. Maurice Lake said on Thursday.