Philipsburg, Sint Maarten — Today, January 20, the Honorable Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs held a fruitful meeting with the newly appointed State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Alexandra van Huffelen via video conference call together with the Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion, Minister Plenipotentiary Rene Violenus and their respective support staff. Prime Minister Jacobs was able to discuss several topics of interest with State Secretary Van Huffelen during this first official meeting.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Jacobs updated concerning the COVID-19 situation on St. Maarten and government’s current mitigation efforts in this regard.
St. Maarten was able to receive official confirmation from State Secretary Van Huffelen to have the deviation of article 25 handled as an agenda point in the next Kingdom Council of Ministers (RMR) meeting scheduled for February 4. State Secretary Van Huffelen also confirmed that this request would be heading to the RMR with a positive advice from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) as per the Committee of Financial Supervision’s (CFT) advice. Additionally, the trajectory of the Caribbean Body for Reform and Development (COHO) was discussed where cooperation between St. Maarten, COHO and the CFT is concerned.
“It is important to hear one another and for us to understand each other as we are all on the same page with the same goal; to improve St. Maarten. State Secretary Van Huffelen has been well informed concerning St. Maarten’s current status, as such, we have agreed to have bi-lateral meetings and four-country consultations and quite some matters to be discussed in the coming weeks”, concluded Prime Minister Jacobs.
