Richardson says Gov must work things out with Schiphol…
In the wake of the uncertainty surrounding the refusal of the Dutch to release the 39 million liquidity support that is so badly needed by the Government of St. Maarten and the threats of pulling back their support for the reconstruction of the Airport Terminal, there has been lots of comments from every circle of the way forward in handling this crisis situation. One such statement came from Mr Achken Roberto Richardson who served as an advisor to the then Island council of St. Maarten when it was under “Higher Supervision” by the Dutch via the Central Government in Curacao at the time. Mr. Richardson was speaking on the popular Sunday morning Program “People’s Voice” with Wendell Moore.
Richardson who is very much familiar with the Dutch mentality and how they operates made it clear, what we are going through now is pretty much a déjà vu. We have been here before and we should know how to get out of this. Richardson recall the days when the harbor was constructed and then it was passed to our own to manage. The same was said about the Airport that was in the hands of a Dutch man before it was taken over by Holiday a local son that later developed the airport to what it has become. The competence is there we only need the political will and maturity from our Elected Officials to recognize where we are at the moment, and make the right decisions moving forward.
Mr. Richardson claimed sometimes we have to face the reality of what may appear to be a loss in order for us to win later. St Marten needs the Liquidity support to carry on the work of the Government and the Airport, under the present agreement with the Royal Schiphol Group and the financing from the Dutch government via the World Bank and the EIB loan must continue to complete the Airport reconstruction. There is therefore no point in causing more conflict between the COM, the Parliament and the Dutch representative Mr. Knops, when it comes to the Airport and the Liquidity support but sit together and work this out for St. Maarten to benefit by having our Airport terminal up and running, and that will be a win win for us all.
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