PHILIPSBURG–Justice Minister/Acting Prime Minister Rafael Boasman and his support staff will represent St. Maarten at a major international two-day donor’s conference in New York starting today, Tuesday, November 21.
According to a press release, the objective is to mobilise support and commitment of pledges to help countries devastated by hurricanes in 2017 to build back better and fulfil the vision of being the first climate-resilient countries in the world. The conference hopes to raise more than two billion US dollars, mostly in the form of grant aid to help affected countries rebuild better, stronger and smarter ahead of next year’s storm season, the release said.
Canada is amongst the donor countries that have confirmed their participation in the Caricom/United Nations pledging conference. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, western donor nations including the US, and some of the wealthier countries in the Middle East are expected to attend.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is coordinating the two-day meeting.
Dominica and Barbuda, the smaller sister island of Antigua, were among the Caribbean single trading bloc countries that were ruined by the 2017 storms, and most of the focus will be on these two, the release said. Officials say they have no plan to ignore the fact that associate members such as the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands had also suffered serious damage.
Additionally, the region also has an interest in most of the others because of the large populations of nationals from the bloc living in places such as Dutch St. Maarten, French St Martin and the US Virgin Islands. Hundreds were evacuated with free flights back home in the days after the storms.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/71110-boasman-to-attend-major-donor-s-conference-in-ny
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