CREATING VALUE THROUGH COOPERATION
REMARKS AT THE GOVERNOR’S CONSULAR CORPS RECEPTION 2017
by
His Excellency drs. Eugene B. Holiday
Governor of Sint Maarten
Sheer Restaurant
Philipsburg, Sint Maarten
Friday, February 17, 2017
Chairlady of Parliament,
Prime-Minister, Ministers
Ambassador, Consuls
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening,
And Welcome,
Marie-Louise and I are pleased to welcome you to this reception organized in honor of the Consular corps of Sint Maarten on the theme: Creating Value Through Cooperation. To our consuls – our honored guests – present here this evening I therefore hereby in the spirit and tradition of our Friendly Island extend a special friends welcome to you.
Esteemed Consuls,
Through these words of welcome I wish to emphasize the importance and value our people and government place on nurturing cooperation between the countries you represent and Sint Maarten. It is my intention through this annual reception to help maintain and build closer partnerships through friendship and dialogue between our people and governments.
I do so because as a small, open tourism based Caribbean nation, we recognize that there is value in international cooperation. Value created through cherished common goods such as harmony, stability and opportunity which are essential for the growth and wellbeing of our people. Being in a position to live in harmony and stability with opportunity is particularly valuable given the shared security and economic challenges we face in our globalized world.
Thus as we gather here this evening at this year’s Consular Corps reception, I wish to thank each of you for the valuable work you do for our residents, your citizens visiting or living here. That is because their interaction with our people is the best foundation for the creation of strong effective cooperation grounded in mutual understanding, friendship and lasting partnerships. That is because strong relations anchored in friendship through people-to-people contact and dialogue are the bedrock of effective partnerships and cooperation. I am as such pleased with your presence here this evening as members of the Sint Maarten Consular Corps. And even more so taking into account the travel difficulties which some of you encountered in getting here and I trust that your extra efforts will be worthwhile.
In that regard I trust that your interactions this evening with leaders and officials from our government, business and social sectors will help to further deepen the roots of the cooperation and business relations between our countries. This builds partnerships, based on mutual understanding and mutual benefit. These partnerships in turn create value in education, in air transportation, in banking relations and in security to name a few.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In that context I believe that it is our joint obligation to continue to move forward as agents for partnerships between our countries, communicating and stimulating friendship and dialogue for mutually beneficial and valued cooperation.
And as I leave you with that message, I look forward to creating more effective cooperation through partnership, friendship and dialogue with you.
Thank you,
God bless you and God bless Sint Maarten.