GREAT BAY:--- Tourism is St. Maarten's main source of income and as a result should be fiercely protected. With a one pillar economy such as this, economic shocks can be risky; therefore, competent persons need to be placed in these crucial positions to ensure stability and sustenance of our economy.
The Board of the United St. Maarten Party (USp) believes that with unpredictable economical influences like the worldwide economic depression that started in 2008 and peaked in 2009 and resulted in a global economic downturn, some of which still lingers, St. Maarten needs to have proactive leaders in place who can anticipate these situation and have a recovery plan in place.
"Our main export product is tourism and while we practically import everything, we pay for our imports with the income made from our exports," Frans Richardson; Leader of the USp explained. "But our export value has been diminishing in relation to our import value. In other words we are importing more than what we are exporting and if this trend continues, bankruptcy is not too far in the distance. This is why diversification of the economy is so important."
The solution Richardson said is to find ways to keep money circulating in our economy, as opposed to primarily flowing out. "We need to look at the core import products like fuel, food, and building materials and see how we can reduce the outflow," he said. "Besides imports we also have a high remittance situation where foreign investors and institutions also remit money to their offshore companies. These are all things that must be regulated to ensure sustenance of our economy."
Other ways he cited to improve our economy is to balance payments and by diversifying the economy. This means to promote our island by rebranding in existing markets and ensuring that we capitalize on our high season and eliminate the slow season by investing in South American market as climatic changes in those parts usually force their residents to temporarily relocate in the tropics.
"By having investments abroad, the profit we make on these investments flows back to our island's coffers," Richardson said. "The more income we get from abroad, will offset our export versus import deficiency and by creatively and strategically using our high and low season periods we can build a profitable industry which can also sustain itself."
USP Press Release
