POND ISLAND–University of St. Martin (USM) will host a seminar on economic diversity for the island on Thursday, March 21, at 7:00pm
This will be the sixth seminar in a series initiated by USM in September last year, where sustainable development goals, research, curriculum and public interest are talked about in constructive dialogue.
Guest speakers will include for St. Maarten Tourist Bureau Interim Director May-Ling Chun; The PWR Agency Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ife Badejo, and Marketing Solutions Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and French St. Martin Collectivité Territorial Councilwoman Bernadette Davis.
“The experts will discuss the need to diversify St. Maarten’s economy and move away from depending on traditional tourism,” said USM President Antonio Carmona. “Furthermore, we’ll hear from these prominent women on the state of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the place of incubators in the current economic system, and entrepreneurship generally.”
The panel will be moderated by community activist Melissa Gumbs.
Carmona said this month’s seminar will be special, as one of the invited guests will be coming in from French St. Martin.
“If we are going to talk about economy and economic diversity, we need to think about the entire island Soualiga; the economy does not stop at the French-Dutch border. And that goes for most of the topics we cover in our seminar series. It is important to remember that USM’s original mission was to serve the entire island; therefore, the neutral English spelling of our university name,” Carmona said.
The USM seminar series is co-sponsored by the Department of Interior and Kingdom Relations BAK and UNESCO St. Maarten, the two entities responsible for promoting the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each month, a public servant or policy advisor is invited to offer an introduction to the topic being discussed by the panel. On Thursday, the public will hear a few words from Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications Senior Policy Advisor Jude Houston.
The seminar will be held at USM Conference Room 202. Doors will open at 6:30pm.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/86123-usm-hosting-seminar-on-economic-diversity-thurs
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