Today Newspaper St. Maarten

Working for People governing program be released soon

St. Maarten – The Working for the People governing program of the coalition National Alliance, Democratic Party and three independent MPs, is taking shape and may be released a few days after the original deadline of August 21.
General deliberations between ministers regarding the governing program were started on Tuesday during the Council of Ministers weekly meeting, the Prime Minister disclosed yesterday.
The Prime Minister reiterated that coalition could ill afford to “seek to change everything that is taking place and reinvent the wheel.”
Areas will be prioritized in terms of what the government would like to accomplish within this governing term.
The ideas of all ministers will be incorporated into the governing program but there are initiatives that were left by the previous administration that can still be pursued “with urgency,” the Prime Minister said.
She expressed the hope that the Governor’s statement that is made annually to the Parliament of St.Maarten will be a reflection of the ideas and vision of the government.

Relations within the Kingdom
In terms of strengthening external cooperation with its Kingdom partners, the three Prime Ministers of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, St.Maarten, Curacao and Aruba will be meeting for the annual Arikok meeting on October 26. The meeting usually focuses on areas of cooperation and working groups representing the three countries will present proposals.
The Arikok meeting will be followed by the Kingdom Conference in Aruba on November 13 to see how far each partner, St.Maarten, Curacao, Aruba and the Netherlands, has gotten in terms of executing resolutions from the last Kingdom Conference.
Plans are also on stream for the Dutch and British Overseas Countries and Territories to meet in Aruba on September 6 and September 7 for the ministerial meeting on HIV/Aids. The meeting will see participants discussing the furtherance of the European Union funded HIV/AIDS program.