Honourable Ministers of Finance Hiro Shigemoto and Vice Prime Minister Theo Heyliger, are scheduled to leave the island on Friday on a 10-day working visit to Holland.
The ministers will be meeting with the Dutch Minister of Finance, Minister of Economic Affairs, representatives of the Financial Supervisory body CFT, faction leaders in the Dutch Second Chamber of Parliament as well as the Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
The objective of the working visit is to get acquainted with the Dutch ministers and other entities while at the same time building and strengthening the relationship between the countries of The Netherlands and Sint Maarten.
"It is an opportunity for us to foster the relationship that already exists within the Dutch Kingdom, but at the same time to network with the different entities in Holland and to get to know the political representatives holding office and vice versa.
"The Vice Prime Minister and I plan to appraise the ministers and faction leaders about various issues on the island and how we are dealing with them, especially in the area of public finance.
"This is one area of concern of Kingdom partner Holland, but at the same time, this area is also of great interests to us. As Government we have to allocate the resources and take the necessary measures to make sure that public finance is handled according to the principles of good governance and the rule of law which country Sint Maarten realizes are the fundamentals of democracy and of a good functioning state.
"Our discussions will also focus on the debt relief package for the island as well as the payment of the outstanding former Netherlands Antilles Federal Government invoices through the "vereffenings commissie" which still has to be established. Our representative candidate for this committee is Jean James.
"We look forward to sitting down with our colleagues and having productive discussions," Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto said on Thursday.
The delegation also plans to visit the offices of S4, the student organization that handles the affairs of Sint Maarten students in Holland. Both ministers are looking forward to informing students about current developments on the island since the attainment of country status on October 10 as well as what the future holds for the nation.
The Minister also added that he hopes to sign a number of contracts of persons who will work in the tax department.