Philipsburg:---Commissioner of Economic Affairs Maria Buncamper-Molanus stressed yesterday that the economic situation on St. Maarten is too serious an issue for the National Alliance to be playing politics with. She urged the people of St. Maarten to "filter through" the noise coming from the Alliance faction and get the facts for themselves about what government is doing to mitigate the effects of the world-wide economic downturn.Reflecting on Monday's Island Council meeting, the Commissioner said the Alliance remains very creative when it comes to complaining, but haven't presented a single new idea or possible solution to the people of St. Maarten.
"The Alliance faction would have the people of St. Maarten believe that government is sitting on its laurels and doing nothing to help ease the situation for our people," Buncamper-Molanus said. "As was made clear in the Island Council meeting, the Executive Council answered every question posed relating to the economic situation, presented what actions government had taken and continue to take and what future actions could be expected. In contrast, the National Alliance used its time to raise several issues that had no relation to the economic situation," she said.
Dismissing the Alliance's claim that government waited too late to address the economic situation, the Commissioner pointed to the fact that only recently the Alliance took some sort of initiative to meet with the SHTA. "That was their first and only attempt to get relevant information pertaining to the economic situation. They then took whatever information they gathered, and played politics with it. I am sure this is not what the SHTA had anticipated," Buncamper said.
She added that the Department of Economic Policy & Research along with her office, started to look at the economy as early as the 4th quarter of 2007 when the mortgage investments started to fail in the US. Furthermore, she pointed out that several economic experts world wide had predicted a solid economic year in January of 2008. "None of these experts saw this situation on the horizon. But the experts of the Alliance would tell you that the Democratic Party faction, to use their words, ‘has no clue', how to deal with the economic situation and should have seen it coming," she added.
The purpose of the measures she laid out in her hour long presentation is to provide economic relief, by increasing purchasing power and alleviating the effects of the cost of living effects on St. Maarten in partnership with our private sector stakeholders.
Measures including controlling the price of ULG and LPG on the local market, such controls prevented volatile changes and kept the market stable. In order to reduce the informal market and ensure that persons were compiling with government control prices and other policies control has been increased and been more visible. To this end, the Sector Economy and Tourism has hired a total of 6 controllers, 4 inspectors at the department of Control and Inspections and VOSEC has hired 2 economic controllers. Additionally, over 40 controllers across sectors have been trained as Extra Ordinary Police.
Additionally, the Sector Economy and Tourism is in the process of developing and finalizing a special unit, called the Multi-disciplinary Control Unit. This unit, will consist of cross-sectoral controllers and inspectors, that has been cross trained in order to conduct controls in a much more effective and efficient manner. Added to this the Souliga Police will be transferred to the Island Government, this measure will put more control in the island's hand as it pertains to control and enforcement.
As an effort to stimulate competition the department of VOSEC has increased controls, and has initiated a program to published price comparisons on a monthly basis. After monitoring the situation for several months the sector has noted a stabilization of prices. Further more in order to ensure a synchronization of our labour market and reduce any mix match the Sector of Economy & Tourism, Education, Labour and our private stakeholders, has embarked upon a project to synchronization policies and efforts. The combined efforts of the various measures throughout government are expected to reduce the cost of living in the long-term, increase employment opportunities and reduce our informal market.
