ECYS Minister Melissa Gumbs

PHILIPSBURG--Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (ECYS) Minister Melissa Gumbs would like to see a cultural shift within government to break down siloed operations, following the ministry’s strategic planning session held February 13.

PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs says casinos currently do not pay turnover tax (TOT) and she believes this must change, while indicating that she is aware of possibly one or two additional casinos in the pipeline.

PHILIPSBURG--Digital payment giants Revolut and PayPal have indicated they are not interested in entering the St. Maarten market at this time, with Revolut indicating that it had “other priorities” and sees “entering the market as commercially non-viable at this time” and PayPal signalling that the market is not economically attractive.

ZWOLLE / PHILIPSBURG--Two subsidiaries of the Dutch construction group VolkerWessels have been fined a combined 480,000 euros for bribing former Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Theo Heyliger in connection with the awarding of the contract for the Simpson Bay Causeway Bridge.

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten is on the verge of one of its most severe sargassum seasons on record, with massive volumes of the seaweed already surging across the Atlantic, raising concerns about potential impacts on public health, tourism and marine ecosystems.