PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The Department of Statistics (STAT) from the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunications, embarked upon an Economic Census Survey (ECS) approximately 10 weeks ago and has received information to date from over 1800 actively operating entities.
Department Head of STAT, Makini Persaud-Hickinson said she remains very pleased with the cooperation of the business community so far and feels very confident that the census will provide a good baseline of statistics for the country.
The ECS is now in its final phase, where STAT is verifying the non-visible/micro businesses who are registered but not necessarily operating from an openly visible location. The project has therefore been extended by 3 weeks and will now run until the third week of August, to enable STAT to thoroughly get an idea of how many of these type of businesses are still active.
Initial statistics coming out of the census show businesses that have opened after the hurricanes total 107 with the majority being in the food service sector. These businesses currently employ 386 people with 201 of them or 52 per cent being female.
The legal form of the new businesses is almost evenly matched between NV (29 per cent), BV (28 per cent) and Sole Proprietorship (26 per cent).
The roughly 1700 businesses that were actively operating before the September 2017 hurricanes are mostly NV’s with Sole Proprietorships being the second.
Wholesale and retail trade represents the biggest portion of these businesses with accommodation and food service being the second largest sector.
Currently employed in the existing businesses are 13,104 people, of which 6,460 are female. The 13,104 is down from 13,831 of the same businesses before the September 2017 hurricanes.
The ECS is an internationally used exercise to collect and report on the number of business establishments according to their size, economic activity/industry, and location.
STAT will also be able to identify and report on the number of micro, small, medium and large entities operating on St. Maarten.
9 interviewers have been busy canvassing business operations in eight zones namely, Low Lands, Simpson Bay, Cole Bay, Little Bay, Cul de Sac, Philipsburg, Upper Princess Quarter and Lower Princess Quarter.
This survey is a main data source for: 1) Creating a comprehensive Statistical Business Register system; 2) Calculating more accurately the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 3) Obtaining data on the number and distribution of economic establishments by industrial category, region and number of employees.
