SINT MAARTEN (POND ISLAND) – Consultation workshops pertaining to Sint Maarten’s draft National Development Vision (NDV), started earlier this month after the Vision was launched. On Tuesday August 4th and Tuesday August 11th, 2020, the Department for the Interior and Kingdom relations conducted two stakeholder consultations workshops in a series of three.
The third and final session will be held on Tuesday August 18, from 9am to 12 pm. The final consultation will be on the third development pillar in the draft NDV ‘A Decisive and Ambitious Sint Maarten’. The purpose of the mini-series of workshops is to provide private sector, NGOs, Academia and the community the ability to give feedback on the development themes.
The Draft National Development Vision serves as a guide for the long-term development of Sint Maarten and is based on many years of collected baseline information from government, residents, and organizations.
The key objective of Sint Maarten’s NDV, is to transform Sint Maarten into a compassionate, strong and decisive country that will be economically resilient and capable of sustaining its own development and providing an enhanced quality of life and well-being for generations to come.
Departing from this objective the Vision for Sint Maarten is built on three pillars/development themes: a Compassionate and Vibrant Society, a Strong and Resilient economy and a decisive and ambitious country. Each pillar outlines visionary goals per subtheme, including targets aligned to the (international) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
The Prime Minister of Sint Maarten, the Honorable Silveria E. Jacobs, opened the first session on the theme “a Compassionate and Vibrant society”. This session clearly outlined the need for an integrated approach to reach any of the goals mentioned in the vision. Cooperation amongst stakeholders was also highlighted as a prerequisite for successful outcomes.
The second in the series of workshops on “A Strong and Resilient Economy”, was opened by the Secretary General, Mr. Hensley Plantijn. Over 20 stakeholders representing the Private Sector and NGO’s were actively involved. From this group, the Chamber of Commerce, Pension Fund (APS), SZV, Qredits, Central Bank, Foresee (4C) Foundation, and the St. Maarten Development Fund gave their feedback on the development themes by means of a presentation.
Others send their written feedback. In overall, strong, critical and yet positive feedback was delivered on the visionary goals. All stakeholders agreed that cooperation amongst stakeholders should be strengthened. In addition,there is strong need for qualitative data required for proper policy development, monitoring and evaluation.
Both workshop sessions have been made available online via the Departments Facebook page. Persons that were not able to tune in are encouraged to play back the session and leave comments. Through the assistance of the Department of Communications (DCOMM), and the teleconference room provided by Telem, the first stakeholder workshops successfully reached 5000 plus online viewers each.
Please tune in to the Departments Facebook page next week Tuesday August 18, 2020, at 9am, to listen in and to provide feedback as the third and final workshop key stakeholders will discuss the development Theme on Governance: “A DECISIVE AND AMBITIOUS COUNTRY”.
Source: Souliga Newsday https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com-k2&view=item&id=33002:bak-ndv-online-consultations-final-workshop-session-set-for-tuesday&Itemid=504
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