Philipsburg: --- Commissioner of Finance and Tourism Affairs Roy Marlin said that the executive council has decided to pool its finances to able to fight the effects of economic downturns that are already affecting several parts of the world. Marlin said simply by following international news on the economic downturn has created a sense of worry for St. Maarten. "Already we see people in the United States of America have been losing their jobs as well as the banking situation in that country is enough for us to worry since the USA is our primary source market" Marlin said.
The commissioner said there are a number of issues that are being dealt with which can negatively affect tourism. Those issues are the rising crime, and the passport scanning system at the airport. He said already the major stakeholders at the airport had submitted a letter on their concerns of the scanning system to the executive council. He said the executive council is looking at getting a meeting with the Minister of Justice and the police department to address this matter since it is having a ripple effect on tourism.
The finance commissioner said he also took note of the statements made by the SHTA on their need for additional funds to further market tourism during this downturn. He said as the commissioner of finance he is in constant meetings with the St. Housing and Trade Association (SHTA) on the economic recovery fund (ERF) where they discuss the management of the ERF funds that is provided by government. He said he fully supports the economic stimulus for the marketing and promoting of tourism. However, he made clear that this not the sole initiative of the stakeholders on the Economic stimulus but they have been preparing this jointly since they know it is needed and must be done.
Marlin said the executive council is seeking ways and means to allocate funding for the stimulus by taking the monies that is allocated in the 2009 budget for tourism marketing and promotion. Government he said has opportunities in the law governing financial supervision where they can approach the chairman of the Kingdom Council of Ministers to work outside the norms in cases of calamities.
He said in the SEI they can match funding for social and economic programs.
There are programs which have take effect in 2009 to 2011. He said the executive council in its meeting yesterday has decided to re-prioritize the SEI programs. Marlin said the idea is to make sure there are at least six to seven million guilders for the stimulus. The commissioner said however, there is a process that has to be followed before the monies is available. Parts of these monies he said will be coming from the local government while the other part from the USONA. He said right now they are looking into shifting the monies that is allocated in the SEI for this stimulus. He said some four million guilders would be coming from the tourism marketing programs and the other two or three million from matching programs in the SEI. Marlin said government has given this matter high priority since they know of the urgency.
Leader of government Sarah Wescot Williams in backing up the process said the kind of monies that would be needed for the additional marketing in this global condition is money that St. Maarten does not have which would make the kind of impact they would need to make. She stressed that whatever available funding the island government manages to put together then it is crucial that they determine how exactly that money is going to be spent. She said even though people love and would want to travel they simply would not be able to do so in this global economic downturn. She said that it is critical for the government as well as the private sector on St. Maarten to do their best and keep people working so that they can overcome the challenges. She emphasized that when people are working then they would be able to spend and that in itself would keep the economic engine running. When people are working they would be able to pay the banks and buy things outside of their basic needs the commissioner said.