Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Dear Editor,
The entire nation was glued to their TV and to their radios listening to the 2014 budget debate. Others depended on the print media to be informed about it. As you know, the budget is the most important policy document of any civilized government, it outlines the government projected income and expenses. But an integral part of the budget is also the governing programme. This programme indicates what the people can expect their government to do for them for the current year. Unfortunately, this document was missing from the entire debate and you would have expected any self-respecting government to have submitted this as part of the budget debate. Each political party during the last election was required by law to make their party programme available to the general population and that should have served as the basis in preparing the governing programme. Once again our people was duped for the umpteenth time and this UP led coalition government has shown for the short period of time that they are in government that they have no regard for the people. Most of them have a tendency to say fool them now and close to the election give them something in their hands. They will forget that you did absolutely nothing for them during the previous years.
I have to admit that I was one of those glued to the TV and radio expecting to hear some proposals as to how we are going to put this nation back to work and keep it working.
During the 2014 budget debate the OSPP proposed to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Hassink to establish a loan guarantee programme and to allocate 5 million guilders on that budget. These funds would be used to assist entrepreneurs to acquire the necessary funds to set up their small businesses. In most cases young prospective entrepreneurs with good business plans lack the necessary funding and cannot acquire these funds from the bank because they do not possess any type of collateral, be it real estate, a savings account, a financial godfather or any other valuable asset to secure the loan.
This loan guarantee proposal was also sent to all the banks, the Chamber of Commerce and to parliament, but with none of them even responding with the exception of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Hassink, who indicated that he would have taken it up with the then Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr. Ted Richardson. Small businesses are the backbone of every economy and this is one way to create new jobs; put our young people to work and allow our people to become the owners of businesses.
Just talking about who owns Front Street and Back Street is not going to change anything; we must put programmes in place with proper training and funding to allow our people to be part of the economic pie that many others have been enjoying for many years.
The Small Business Development Foundation (SBDF) already exists and can provide all the necessary training to our potential young and bright entrepreneurs. Let's give them a chance to prove themselves.
Just imagine an existing food truck in Philipsburg that already employs four persons is interested in setting up a similar food venture in the Simpson Bay area. This entrepreneur goes to one of our local banks to acquire the financing to set up it up with a good feasibility study but lacks the necessary guarantee for the bank. In most cases she would not receive the funding from the bank due to the lack of the collateral. But with the loan guarantee programme in place, we would have allowed another small business to grow and to employ another four to five persons.
Let's put our people to work and allow them to become business owners as well. It is one of the ways to put our young boys and girls to work and take them off the block and avoid them getting in trouble. No nation can develop its people unless a loan and mortgage guarantee programme is in place. We don't have to reinvent the wheel; these programmes exist all over the world.
Lenny Priest
Leader, One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP)
