SXMElections.com

ExxonMobil to continue exploring in Guyana waters despite Venezuela claim

GEORGETOWN, Guyana--Don't expect Guyana to stop its offshore oil exploration because Venezuela is claiming territorial waters where the "black gold" was recently discovered.

President David Granger has made it clear that his government will continue to back oil giant ExxonMobil in its work because the exploration is taking place in Guyana's exclusive economic zone.

He said he had met with officials from the company and assured them that they had nothing to fear as far as their operations in Guyana's waters were concerned.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree on May 25, claiming sovereignty over Guyana's territorial waters in the Essequibo region of the Atlantic Ocean Read more

Sarah calls for high priority for performing arts centre

PHILIPSBURG--"Put politics aside" and get moving on the development and construction of a preforming arts centre for St. Maarten was the call from Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams to her fellow MPs on Monday morning.

The arts centre should be "put as a high priority" by government and the money needs to be found for the project, Wescot-Williams said in the notification section of the plenary session of Parliament dealing with the Integrity Chamber.

Her call stemmed from the packed arts and cultural schedule in the just concluded weekend Read more

After midnight in the library, Putin sets out his world view

ST PETERSBURG, Russia--It was two minutes before midnight when Russian President Vladimir Putin finally entered the meeting room in the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, more than three hours late, to be interviewed by a dozen exhausted journalists.

His retinue seemed wearily accustomed to the late-night regimen, but Putin himself - after back-to-back meetings, a speech and an on-stage interview at his annual business conference here in his home town of St Petersburg - was fresh, fulsome and feisty Read more

St. Maarten signatory to OCT sustainable Energy Roadmap

BRUSSELS, Belgium--Minister Plenipotentiary Josianne Artsen signed on the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) Sustainable Energy Roadmap on behalf of government on Thursday. The roadmap was the end result of the Summit of the OCTs Energy Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, from June 16 to 18.

The roadmap facilitates and supports the path to lower fossil fuel dependency, and increases energy efficiency to further assist OCTs in the transition to sustainable energy.

OCT governments agreed at the summit to support the development of an OCT Sustainable Energy Roadmap to help reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and improve their energy efficiency.

A selection of the identified sustainable energy priority areas for the Caribbean OCTs and a proposal for a possible joint project were shared with the participants of the summit.

The Energy Summit gave OCTs the opportunity to provide guidance regarding sustainable energy priorities for the Thematic Programme (16-18 million euros) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).

Sustainable energy was identified as an essential area of cooperation at the OCTs Ministerial Conference, held in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, on February 26.

St Read more

Caribbean Netherlands Week: Still A Good Result

BES Islands - From June 8th to 12th, the Netherlands Caribbean week (CN-week) took place in The Hague.

Priorities during this week were as stated before: poverty alleviation, children's rights and promoting the economic development.

Multi-annual Programme (MAP) and development plans for each island
Since taking office as Kingdom Representative, Gilbert Isabella travels regularly between the islands and to The Hague to share his findings and experiences from the Caribbean Netherlands and to bring the views of the island governments to the attention.

He speaks regularly with various Ministers, State Secretaries and civil servants, with special attention to the problems which arise on the islands Read more

India's economic data bring cheer

NEW DELHI--India's industrial production output grew more than expected in April, reaching a two-month high, and retail inflation edged up in May, easing concern over an economy facing the worst drought since 2009.
  Output at factories, mines and utilities grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in April, the fastest pace since February. That was higher than March's 2.5 percent growth and the 1.6 percent economists forecast in a Reuters poll.
  Consumer inflation in May rose to 5.01 percent from 4.87 percent in the previous month on higher energy costs Read more

>GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Ten civil servants from the Government of Sint Maarten has completed five days of training in a Basic User and Database Administration workshop. The workshop started June 1st and concluded on June 5th.

Organized by the National Development Plan (NDP) team from the Department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK), the implementing agency for NDP project, the 10 civil servants now have the knowledge to work with the country databases SintMaartenInfo and CensusInfo Sint Maarten.

A follow-up training will be the next step – training the trainers – that will enable the 10 civil servants to assists others in learning how to utilize the database system.

Representatives from the Department of Statistics will also in the near future travel to the United States (New York) for a more advanced training at a Learning Lab.

Representatives of the various ministries now know how to create and manage databases within their ministry and how to upload their processed data into SintMaartenInfo for all stakeholders inside and outside of government to use - search for data, produce objects like tables, graphs and maps for presentations and reporting purposes to regional and international entities.

The Secretary Generals of the seven ministries were given a presentation on Wednesday morning and they were pleasantly surprised by what SintMaarteninfo looked like and the amount of data that was already in the database.

The information included Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) data as well as population and housing census data Read more

10 Civil Servants Complete National Database Training Workshop

GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – Ten civil servants from the Government of Sint Maarten has completed five days of training in a Basic User and Database Administration workshop.

The workshop started June 1st and concluded on June 5th.

Organized by the National Development Plan (NDP) team from the Department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK), the implementing agency for NDP project, the 10 civil servants now have the knowledge to work with the country databases SintMaartenInfo and CensusInfo Sint Maarten.

A follow-up training will be the next step – training the trainers – that will enable the 10 civil servants to assists others in learning how to utilize the database system.

Representatives from the Department of Statistics will also in the near future travel to the United States (New York) for a more advanced training at a Learning Lab.

Representatives of the various ministries now know how to create and manage databases within their ministry and how to upload their processed data into SintMaartenInfo for all stakeholders inside and outside of government to use - search for data, produce objects like tables, graphs and maps for presentations and reporting purposes to regional and international entities.

The Secretary Generals of the seven ministries were given a presentation on Wednesday morning and they were pleasantly surprised by what SintMaarteninfo looked like and the amount of data that was already in the database.

The information included Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) data as well as population and housing census data Read more