Philipsburg: --- Commissioner of Economic Affairs Maria Buncamper-Molanus re-iterated yesterday that the Island Government is doing everything possible to stem the impact of the global financial situation on the economy and overall life on St. Maarten. The Commissioner stressed that St. Maarten's economy is heavily dependent on the developments within the United States as our primary market. As such in response to the current downturn in the U.S. economy the Island Government of St. Maarten and the St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce convened a meeting to discuss the various measures that can be put in place to cushion any shocks.
Contrary to perception, the sector economy and tourism has been active over the past few months monitoring the economic situation and devising and executing plans to offset negative affects as much as possible," Buncamper-Molanus said. This included, among other things, increasing controls and hiring of extra economic controllers and reviewing and extension of the basket of price control items and publishing price comparisons of food items in the daily papers offering the consumer the opportunity to improve their efforts in finding the best deals.
A two pronged approach was discussed which will focus on measures that will be spear headed by the sector Economy & Tourism. The tourism department will implement an emergency marketing strategy that will focus on key cities within the US combined with increased airlift from Miami, NY, Boston, San Juan and South America. The purpose is to cushion projected decline in arrivals for the upcoming season.
Additionally, sector economy and tourism will focus on the cushioning the effects on the local market. Important to mention is the injection of Naf 52 million in the economy during a period of three years from the Social Economic Initiative. This financial injection will have similar effects as insurance claims had after hurricane Luis in 1995, albeit to a lesser extent because of the fact that these funds will be spent over a three year period. Nevertheless it is a financial injection which will assist in our efforts to maintain economic activity during the expected slowing down of tourism arrivals. This may entail a review of the listed priorities of the SEI project. Experience has shown that securing the existence of small and medium business proves to be important when going through such a economic situation.
At the conclusion of the session yesterday, the Chamber has agreed to work cooperatively with the island government. Furthermore, in addition to actions already being taken by Government, the Chamber within two weeks after consultation with key public and private sector stakeholders and experts, will compile a working document that can be used to address the various issues facing the economy.
The Commissioner applauded the chamber's initiative to host a consultation session/summit to discuss with stakeholders how to mitigate the effects of the global financial situation. "We are all partners and as such should work closely together in St. Maarten's best interest, so I welcome the Chamber's cooperation," she said.