Interview with Luc F.E. Mercelina, Prime Minister of Sint Maarten

24 Jun Interview with Luc F.E. Mercelina, Prime Minister of Sint Maarten

Sint Maarten is a unique island, because of the French and Dutch sides. Could you give our readers a brief history of the island and what is the difference between the two sides?

Sint Maarten is divided into two countries: the Dutch side is in the southern side of the country and the French side is in the northern part. Sint Maarten used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles, which included the six islands of Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius and Saba islands, all part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and it has six islands. The central government of the Netherlands Antilles was always established inWillemstad, Curaçao which governed the six islands. At some point, people thought that the islands could do better if they could get the opportunity to be more autonomous in the kingdom, so Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten chose to become autonomous countries in the kingdom and the other islands Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba had chosen to be a municipality in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. That means that they had a more controlled position by the Netherlands because they are a municipality whereas for us as a country, we have our own government with its prime minister. We chose to go on our own as an island on the 10th of October, 2010, known as 10-10-10.

A lot has to be done if you want to call yourself a country and you need to have seven pillars to ensure the country functions well. The first pillar is that you need to have a good utility company producing electricity and water for the country. The second one is if you want to be a respected country, you must have telecommunication that has to be up to par, adhering to international standards to be able to keep up with the developments of the world. The third one is you need to make sure that you have a good harbor. The fourth one is you need to have a good airport. The fifth one, is you need to have good healthcare.

We were not so strong on those pillars when we initiated the history of being a country with our people. As the prime minister, I realized that these pillars have to be more enforced for the future of this country. I’m working very hard to make sure that I get these pillars stable enough to carry my community. The sixth pillaris the social pillar, where you need to have security, a safe community and be able to deliver educated people to your country. The sixth pillar is a must for you to be able to form a prosperous and responsible country for the future.

On this pillar, we are now encountering three significant threats. The first one is we had some challenges with the utility of our community in the recent past. When I took office, we had a very unstable supply of energy. I was in office and all of a sudden, I was confronted with the national energy crisis for the country. We had a lot of blackouts. We had days when the whole country was in load shedding. I had a big challenge to make sure that I could stabilize the electricity grid for Sint Maarten and I managed. We now have stable energy. We are still in the process of restructuring and enforcing our electricity supply for the country with a future vision of renewable energy too that is a must for an environment-friendly future. The second threat that we are now being faced with is it’s hard to get professionals to propel this country forward. If you want a country to develop, you need professionals. That is one of the challenges we had after Hurricane Irma. We got a grant from the Netherlands of €550 million and we had to get assistance from the World Bank to manage it. After seven years, we still have €200 million remaining to spend on Sint Maarten because we were unable to implement the projects we had planned for the country’s reconstruction after the devastation of Hurricane Irma, due to the lack of professionals available to assist with executing our plans on time.

What rebuilding projects are you undertaking that will benefit communities?

We still have a lot to do in this country. I dream about an education system in which the education system is adhering to the demands of the labor market. And that is where I want to go with this country. I would like to establish a development bank for the country Sint Maarten that will be able to empower my people to get, for example, a mortgage to purchase a house at a low interest rate. For example, a teacher married to a policeman or with a nurse will be able to purchase a house with a low interest rate for the mortgage.

Hurricane Irma destroyed our library and I would like to come up with a national library for the country. We are already busy working on constructing a library for Sint Maarten. By next year, we’re going to have the first stone laying for this library and that is going to be a great advancement in developing our country. I would like to have a cultural complex in which we are going to give more honor to our heritage, our history and a separate department wing concerning our slavery history, for example. We should acknowledge that it was a difficult page in our history as people of this island and we should not forget it.

I’m also dreaming of having a national museum for Sint Maarten, in which we are going to give the people the opportunity to know their heritage. We do not have a university in this country yet and we want to make sure we have a university.

We recently started the construction of a national general hospital for Sint Maarten. It started before I became the prime minister but it has been a very slow ongoing process. I tried with my aggressive proactive approach to try to accelerate the process and there is significant progress in the construction of the new general hospital. Also on November 14th, 2024 we had the official reopening of our airport. The airport is the most top-of-the-line airport in the kingdom of the Netherlands. Sint Maarten has two functions in the northern East Caribbean. We have a hub function for other islands in the Caribbean. We are strategically located in the Caribbean and numerous other islands are accessed via Sint Maarten. Secondly, people that land here always fall in love with the country. We have a lot of repeat tourists that come to Sint Maarten.

These are all dreams that I have because I’m very sensitive to nation-building. These are my priorities in this coming governing period and whatever decision I take will contribute to a well-balanced and well-taught approach to contribute to nation-building.

What would you say to investors and professionals looking to come to Sint Maarten?

Sint Maarten is a very attractive place to invest. We need professionals in every sector. We need these people to help us build our country. Sint Maarten is a great investment area for the world. Why? Because we have a very attractive tax system, beautiful real estate, because of the hilly structure of the island you get beautiful properties with beautiful views of valleys, beaches and hilly areas. There are a lot of foreigners investing in this country on the basis of real estate. Professionals can come and invest in their profession in this country, especially people who want to invest in real estate are welcome. If you are focused on the tourism sector or anything that can accommodate and make the quality of the stay on the island better and contribute to making it one big beautiful island are welcome.

Sint Maarten is a very attractive place at this particular moment. We have 120 different nationalities living peacefully with each other. We have an incredible landscape that on a small square combines green hills, white beaches and sun. That’s the best combination ever and the way God created Sint Maarten, it’s so attractive and beautiful. Sint Maarten is a beautiful island and we can do better. We can make it cleaner and nicer, but in general, Sint Maarten is a beautiful creation of the creator.

Sint Maarten wants to create a new currency with Curaçao, so why is it with Curaçao?

Aruba has its own Aruban guilder and its own Central Bank. When we became a country, we had to think about the monetary union. At that time, because we were in the Netherlands Antilles, we had the Antillean guilder. We used to share the Antillean guilder with all the islands. Then Aruba left first with a separate status and we remained with the other islands. Then we had to divide that again because we became a country and the small islands became municipalities. At that moment, we had to think about how we were going to move forward with the monetary unit that we had. Aruba was already out with their own Aruban guilder. Bonaire, Eustatius, and Saba decided to dollarize their economy. Curaçao and Sint Maarten stayed with the Antillean guilder but that does not exist because the Antilles does not exist.

Before I started in office as prime minister, the process of introducing a Caribbean guilder had been started, so we are heading forward with the Caribbean guilder for Curaçao and Sint Maarten. In that way, we still share a common central bank, the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. To be honest, though, my dream is to dollarize our economy too. If small islands like Saba, Sint Eustatius and Bonaire have proven to survive with a dollar, why can’t we, with a much stronger economy, make it happen in dollars?

With the reconstruction of the island after Hurricane Irma, what environmental requirements would you impose on anybody who wants to come and help you in this rebuilding?

We have taken care to respect the word resiliency and in everything that we now do in this country, we make sure that it adheres to the rules of resiliency. We have experienced as a nation the enormous destructive power of a hurricane like Hurricane Irma. In 2016, Hurricane Irma devastated this country. There was nothing left in this country but if we look back after seven years and how far we have come, we should be proud of what we have done in seven years. Sint Maarten is not a rich country, we have our challenge to have a national balanced budget. With all its limitations and financial challenges. I’m still proud to look back and say, look how far we got with the reconstruction plan of Sint Maarten.

I want to thank the people of the Netherlands who gave us a grant of €550 million when Hurricane Irma occurred which helped us enormously to reconstruct. We still have some money left over and I have big dreams to execute projects for the betterment of this country.

Sint Maarten has a new generator that is expected to help in the energy shortages, can you tell us more?

I initially ordered a 10-megawatt generator when we faced power shortages. After that, we purchased a lease-to-own contract of 20 additional megawatts. We are now installing these generators and by next week they are going to be operational. The price of electricity here is a little bit on the high side because of the fuel costs that we have to pay.

After the 20 megawatts generator, we are now in the process of ordering three times a nine megawatts generator, for an additional 27 megawatts. We will have enough to stabilize the grid for the future. Apart from that we are working on renewable green energy and we are going to focus on solar panels for Sint Maarten. It’ll never be possible on an island like Sint Maarten to have it completely taken over by solar panels, but the studies show that at least 25-30 percent of our energy consumption can be supplied by solar panels. I’m now looking at the possibility of how we can mitigate fuel costs for the country because that makes electricity so expensive. I acknowledge that and I’m working on it.

More broadly, the world has to realize something. We belong to the Small Island Developing States (SIDS)and we are not the ones that cause climate change and we are not big industrial communities, but we are the ones paying the consequences of climate change of the world. I want the world to understand that we are paying the price of the abusive behavior in the world. I would like the world to be more considerate and assist SIDS like Sint Maarten when it comes to the battles and struggles that we have had to survive and the consequences of the climate changes that take place. I want the world to realize that we pay the price for something that we have very little contribution to its cause.

The U.S. and Canada account for 53% of overseas visitors. What are your plans to increase that number, especially from the Miami area?

We have great things to offer Americans, Canadians or whoever wants to visit us, however we have to makeour people in the hospitality sector more professional. If we can increase the service in the hospitality sector and increase the quality of the tourism product, I don’t think there will be many countries that can beat us. But we have to focus on improving.

Secondly, at a certain moment, because so many people were coming here, we had high-end tourists visiting and because we became complacent with that, we don’t have enough to offer the general public. If we increase our tourism product and the quality, we’re going to get all the tourists back to Sint Maarten for sure. In Sint Maarten nobody cares who you are or where you come from, everybody’s welcome. They live with each other peacefully. In our council of ministers, there are three males and four females.