PHILIPSBURG:--- The Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams stressed the importance of a sustainable community development vision for the community of St. Maarten during a recent interview given on 98.1. The Prime Minister highlighted the Millennium Acceleration Project as part of the Millennium Development Goal Project as a means to gain a greater participation in the sustainable development vision for the country: "In 2011 a report was presented regarding the status of the Millennium Development Goals and how St. Maarten faired in this regard. In some areas the country is doing quite well: for example in primary education, improving maternal health and reducing child mortality St. Maarten has been doing quite well. There are other areas where we are making progress but there were two goals where we are lagging behind, namely eradicating poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability. So the focus right now with regards to the Millennium Developing Goals is on those two items considering that all of the millennium development goals are important and that all of these goals are interconnected and necessary for the further development of our people. Taking this into consideration I believe that we cannot sufficiently stress the matter of sustainable development. Sustainable development consists of three key components: economic development, the environment, and social development with all three being cemented by Governance. That is why as a Government it was important that a lot of effort is being put into bringing various stakeholders on board in terms of discussions of future development of St. Maarten. You cannot speak about economic development without talking about environment. Likewise if we look at economic development you have to look at social development and underpinning all of these is the proper Governance of the country," commented the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also stressed that during the economic development of the island in the last decades the focus was placed too little on Environmental sustainability: "It is a fact that especially during our economic boom during the past decades economic development has taken a leap instead of sustaining our environment. A lot has been done that is irreversible and there is much work that we need to do in terms of that," continued Wescot-Williams.
The Prime Minister also discussed the importance of establishing the Poverty Line in order to determine how to approach issues such as the increase of minimum wage: "An important factor with regards to minimum wage is establishing where the poverty line is as far as St. Maarten is concerned. What is necessary with regards to the basic necessity for a person and a family? We need to clearly establish the poverty line and how that relates to the minimum wage. We have made good strives in matter such as social and affordable housing for example but getting a better view on where exactly the poverty line lies," stressed Prime Minister Wescot-Williams.
From the Cabinet of the Prime Minister