Philipsburg: --- Commissioner Xavier Blackman at a press conference on Wednesday gave an outline on his working visit to Holland last week. Blackman told reporters that while in the Netherlands attended to several meetings to deal with a number of issues. Some of the meetings he said dealt directly with the tax system. The delegation he said was mainly fact finding. The finance commissioner also met with the Minister of Finance where several topics were discussed. Blackman also revived the recruitment of drive in Netherlands in the hope of finding much needed personnel.
Commissioner Blackman met with the Dutch State Secretary of Fiscal Affairs, Jan Kees de Jager, facilitated by Ersilia de Lannoy, to discuss fiscal and financial predicaments facing the island.
The pending or proposed tax system for the BES islands was discussed as well as the consequences of implementing such a fiscal system in regards to the other or soon-to-be former Antillean islands—St. Maarten and Curacao.
Though the fiscal system should be competitive, Commissioner Blackman said, it should not hamper the other islands within the Kingdom. For example, if companies were to relocate to the BES Islands due to their tax systems.
The next point that Commissioner Blackman spoke about was the Tax Jurisdiction of Rotterdam, where the delegation got a historical and a general overview of the current system.
He explained that a lot was learned, what steps they took, their challenges, and how to avoid certain mistakes that were made in bringing about a modernized tax system. Commissioner Blackman said that the St. Maarten tax system is currently about 15-20 years antiquated.
The third point that the commissioner spoke about was the recruitment of personnel. A more proactive approach was needed, he insisted.
In this regard, Commissioner Blackman visited the Antillean House, where there is a database of 700 professional Antilleans. In addition, he visited the Passat, a job recruitment organization in Rotterdam.
While in the Netherlands the delegation interviewed potential candidates(12) to fill two critical functions on St. Maarten, namely: the Head of the Personnel Department and the Finance Department. In addition, a personnel information system is being evaluated for selection and to be used to modernize the department.
The fourth point that Commissioner Blackman spoke about was his meeting with officials at the city of Amsterdam. Efforts, he said, are being made to revitalize the cooperation agreement and to expand it as well into areas not stipulated, especially he said with the service house, which administers personnel for the city of Amsterdam.
Commissioner Blackman added that during his visit he reconfirmed the Island Government’s commitment to the Netherlands on the issue of integrity within Government.
He said that initially there was a misinterpretation due to an article that was erroneous; however, he said that no doubt, the issue is still pending. In this regard, an integrity manager is being sought after.
Blackman said, the trip was cordial and productive, much information was shared, and a renewing of commitments to establish and to build relationship between and among several governmental entities.