The Social Economic Council (SER) attended the farewell ceremony of their Dutch counterpart's chairman Alexander Rinnooy Kan last Thursday. Mr Rinnooy Kan completed a six year tenure as chairman of the main Dutch advisory body on socio-economic issues. Rinnooy Kan was succeeded by Wiebe Draijer, former Benelux CEO of consultancy firm McKinsey. During the ceremony, Draijer was formally appointed by minister Kamp of Social Affairs and Employment. The new chairman has his work cut out for him, as Kamp presented the SER with a list of no less than nine new advice requests from the parting Dutch government, underscoring the importance of this advisory body to the Dutch social and political system. Draijer from his part stressed the gravity of the socio-economic challenges the Netherlands and therefore the SER face. The new chairman further announced a more transparent and speedier operating style by the advisory body, providing ideas that might be equally useful in the Sint Maarten context.The Sint Maarten SER was represented at the ceremony by chaiman René Richardson, secretary-general Gerard Richardson and legal adviser Daniëlle Choennie-Babel.
The Sint Maarten delegation made use of the opportunity to strengthen the ties with the Dutch SER, while making arrangements for future cooperation and exchange of best practices. Additionally, visits were paid to crucial partners like the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and to the cabinet of the minister plenipotentiary, Mr. Mathias Voges.
In the same week, the SER representatives attended the much publicized dialogue with Dutch caretakeer minister of Kingdom Affairs Liesbeth Spies, about the recent developments in the new countries and new public entities of the Kingdom. Spies reflected positively upon a number of recent developments in Sint Maarten, especially in the financial field.
A full report on the SER trip to the Netherlands can be found on the recently launched website www.sersxm.org.
The cost involved in the SER trip to the Rinnooy Kan's farewell was covered by Dutch cooperation funds managed by USONA.
