Every day it becomes more evident that local politicians who sold the Guangdong Zhenrong Energy (GZE) project as a celestial answer to the economic standstill we’ve been confronting for some decades were blindsided by naïveté and even, I suspect, an unhealthy dose of self-interest. News this week about a decision of the Hong Kong High Court, followed by a “by the book” PR to defend the Chinese “noble” intentions in Curaçao, is no surprise.
According to a trusted source in Singapore, Titan Petrochemicals, which is owned by GZE, announced recently that GZE has been ordered for winding up by the Hong Kong High Court. It seems these proceedings were started in 2016 in the Hong Kong Court of First Instance. In an official statement released on September 27, 2017, Titan recognises that: “the order of winding up of GZE may have material adverse impact on [Titan] and that it is seeking legal advice and further evaluation [...].”
Titan, a Hong Kong-listed company with headquarters in Hong Kong, is due to conduct the LNG-Terminal in Bullenbaai. Titan has recently expanded its business activities to broaden income. Unaudited figures show that during the first half of 2017, this company lost NAf. 15.5 million. No wonder Titan is nervous about the state of affairs of GZE.
That the Chinese try to do as if these disconcerting reports regarding GZE are somehow just fake news is worrisome. Let’s not forget that in China, the Communist Party (CCP) precedes any state-owned company (SOE). This was clearly the case with the GZE’s representatives and CCP Members responsible for the press release this week.
In China, SOE managers concurrently occupy party’s positions and are also expected to display political rectitude. A look into the charters of GZE and Zhuhai Zhenrong Company, the largest shareholder of GZE, shows that party’s leadership is the most important principle. “And this principle must be insisted on,” according to the Chinese President as reported in The New York Times, October 13, 2016.
Because communists have yet to show they can successfully run capitalist companies, most of the SOEs, which operate as monopolies, are in dire straits. So far, the best idea Beijing had was to lump smaller inefficient SOEs together. So, whilst the quantity of SOEs may have dwindled, now there are much larger inefficient SOEs. There are no indications that the CCP will be able to ensure competitiveness and efficiency. A major stumbling block is that SOE regulators are outranked in the party by SOE executives.
We must also carefully watch the huge China’s debt, expected to rise to 300 per cent of GDP. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this may soon lead to a financial crisis. Another IMF warning is that “China’s sustainable economic growth –growth that is achieved without excessive credit expansion – was much lower than actual growth over the last five years.” Complicating matters, debt in China is handled in a complex, non-transparent way of interbank loans and bonds.
What are the implications for Curaçao? We will face serious challenges if politicians keep assuming that GZE can fix our economic problems and use it as an excuse to further delay needed reforms in, among others, labour market and immigration policies. Another huge mistake is to assume that China’s SOEs will manage this project in Curaçao according to the arm’s length principle.
Fact is that the Chinese do not have a proven “record of allocating resources efficiently,” even at home. Let us consider these details as relevant information in dealing with the Chinese.
I suggest China drop the act that it is here because it somehow fell in love with the island. We know all about this kind of love in places like Zambia, Angola, Laos and Jamaica. Curaçao must seriously do its homework and use all resources available here, in The Kingdom and elsewhere to get the most out of this project. We have been warned.
By Alex David Rosaria
Former Member of Parliament
Dear Editor,
Please help the homeless, This is going over one year now that I am begging for help. I am backward and forward asking my Government for help. We are now year later and we have so many people homeless.
All we are hearing is looting, people going to jail. Now, what they have done is very wrong, but you have to feed them, make them clean up St. Maarten. When you steal you going to work now. Locking them up, the work out here still has to be done.
One hundred persons you have to feed every day. Put them to work and start helping the people who can't afford to build back their home. Like I say, I am homeless all over the place.
You know what is so good about the Lord is that I am holding on to His hands and He is holding me. To the people: give your heart to Christ, He is going to see us through, not today, when is in trouble at the time. Good times and bad times. Stop our wicked ways, turn away from that.
Look, my sister just passed away on September 18, just after the hurricane, and I was begging her to give her life to God, but the world is better so now she is gone.
Please, my friends and family, stop and look at what we are doing. God is coming, nothing is going to get any better. Give your life to the Lord. Come out of our wicked ways. Look around us and see what happened.
I am begging our Government for help. I gave 45 years of service to them, now can't they give me a home to rest my head at night?
Even if I have to pay, I need a place. If ANYBODY has a place and hears my cry, please help me. My phone number is 524-3137.
Please, people of St Maarten, come back to the Lord Jesus where we used to be, I am begging. We all have sinned, but God is willing to forgive us. Humble yourself at His feet like I did, give your life to Him.
People hold on to the hands of God, because I am not letting go.
Rosalinda Avril Gumbs
524-3137
Dear Editor,
The Central Committee meeting of Parliament, convened on October 12, 2017, to discuss hurricane preparedness, disaster management and the recovery of St. Maarten, was closed based on an erroneous ruling. As the Prime Minister, the Honourable William Marlin was unable to attend this meeting Acting Prime Minister, the Honourable Raphael Boasman, together with the Honourable Ministers Jacobs, Doncher and Lee substituted for him.
Dear Editor,
The elected officials of our island must understand that it is a privilege and an honour to serve the people. They have the responsibility to portray themselves exemplary because they represent all of us. The United People's Coalition (UPC) felt the need to emphasize the following, after listening to the ignorance uttered by Mr. Clyde van Putten last week in Curaçao. First of all he introduced himself as the prime minister of Statia and spoke on behalf of Statia and her people in a borderline delusional way, addressing a gathering of Kursou Fuerte I Outonomo.
This brings to mind the Dunning-Kruger effect. A person of low ability suffering from the illusion of superiority mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is.
The UPC had hoped that with the passing of Irma and Maria that he and his cronies would have had a semblance of understanding to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric and make use of this nature given opportunity to really engage in talks with The Hague, without losing face, in an effort to finally get the development of the island going.
What is sad and surely an offence to our people is for this island council member of the ruling coalition in antagonizing, lying manner and with much fanfare, perceived to tell The Hague that if they send people to Statia to take over government backed by marines, he and his followers will hunt them down, burn them and drag them in the street of Statia. Now, in the state our island is in, these types of provoking statements are unbecoming and not in the interest of the people.
As the UPC pointed out already in previous articles this delusional quest of him for more autonomy is only championed because he so eagerly would like to be the first prime minister of Statia. We hope the people are paying attention to what is going on and understand that this fight for more autonomy has nothing to do with them, but only is pushed to feed this “gentleman’s” huge ego.
Taking the above-mentioned into consideration the UPC condemns in the strongest terms the statement coming from this council member and also feels the need to tell the world that our people are resilient, but also a friendly people and will not be incited to violence by this deranged politician.
Reginald C. Zaandam
Leader of the United People's Coalition
Dear Editor,
Having been involved with the consequences of hurricanes in the marine sector for many years, I can say without any doubt that the damage that will result from Hurricane Irma will be disproportionate due to the slow reaction by those wishing to minimize losses to their vessels.
When a vessel is sunk, deterioration occurs as a result of batteries being underwater, fuels being present, acids in the polluted lagoon bottom, high salt content and stray currents. The longer the submersion, the worse the damage.
Undoubtedly the slowness of the reaction to this hurricane was made worse by the lack of a functioning airport that kept away decision-makers and a following hurricane also slowing things up.
But the marine sector had a big shock when it was declared by the Government that all salvaging of vessels needed to be approved by a Ministry.
If there had been a declaration defining measures that needed to be followed that minimized environmental damage, nobody would have been shocked.
This declaration was by the same Ministry that said all building reconstruction needed their approval, which was quickly corrected.
The big difference, of course, is that whilst the Ministry of [Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] VROMI has numerous professionals with appropriate qualifications that have the expertise to evaluate building plans, to the best of my knowledge they do not have the same level of expertise when it comes to marine salvage.
The declaration was quickly posted on social media and all around the world there was reaction that concluded that here was another case of regulation without expertise and heavy-handed control without understanding of the challenges. This could have been easily avoided with communications that dealt with the results that the Ministry was attempting to achieve (environmental protection?).
The Marine Sector has been professionally measured to constitute the drive behind 15 per cent of our Sint Maarten economy. It was also the sector that could rebound the fastest and attract outside capital in this critical period where getting the economy going is critical to the entire country. It is a sector that has a high tax contribution and minimal expense by government in facilitation.
Should we not be smart and strategic about retaining this sector?
Robbie Ferron
