Steering Committee Agrees on the Importance of Maintaining Focus on Rehabilitating Critical Infrastructure.

PHILIPSBURG:— The Steering Committee of the Sint Maarten Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience Trust Fund met virtually and was joined by Prime Minister Jacobs, Minister of Finance Irion of Sint Maarten, and State Secretary Knops of the Netherlands in a High-Level Meeting. The High-Level Meeting focused in particular on the sustainability of projects critical for Sint Maarten’s development. It also discussed practical implementation timelines, human capacity, and funding.
Participants agreed that the reconstruction of the Princess Juliana International Airport is critical to Sint Maarten’ and the Government reiterated its commitment to ensuring appropriate conditions for its reconstruction, including that all stakeholders continue to uphold good corporate governance. The Government of Sint Maarten reiterated the importance of timeliness in the completion of the tender process under international procedures, followed by the start of works and their execution per projected timelines.
High Level Meeting participants underlined the urgent need to advance with the Emergency Debris Management Project and Sint Maarten and the World Bank agreed to a Roadmap for its implementation. The Roadmap sets out key steps and responsibilities to initiate any needed resettlement by the summer of 2021, introduce sector reforms to finance waste management, and professionally reconfigure and clean the landfill. To realize these aims, the Government endorsed the resettlement timetable, confirmed its commitment to waste management sector reform, and welcomed critical additional Technical Assistance from the EDMP and from the Netherlands, as outlined in the Roadmap.
The Steering Committee reaffirmed its full commitment to use Trust Fund resources to the benefit of all Sint Maarteners to build a stronger and more resilient Sint Maarten. Nine projects financed from the Trust Fund are completed or under implementation. Details about project progress and achievements to date are available on the Trust Fund dashboard and on the NRPB website.