Dear Editor,
We have taken note of the announcement by VROMI Minister Giterson to re-evaluate the daytime road work schedule after bringing the country to its knees for 2 days. Literally to a crawling standstill with hours of lost time to countless citizens and businesses; simply to save on night-time differential wage tariffs.
It is high time the powers that be learn from past experience, as this is not the first time such an attempt at savings has occurred with exactly the same results. Government should understand the value of productivity and take into consideration the irreparable cost of lost productivity in any cost analysis. In infrastructure, it is never as simple as how many bills do I have to pay now; there is always the coefficient of how much improvement do I get over how long and when do I regain the cost of my investment.
It would be even better if the various ministries cease operating as independent silos and start working together on planning and coordinating, so that before a decision like this is taken consultation should be held among VROMI and TEATT and determine the economic and social impact of such decision, for example.
If our government does not begin to appreciate that the citizens of this country also have value, that their time is money and that we as a country need to put our best foot forward to our visitors if we want to regain any market share in our ever-shrinking economic condition, we fear they will find they are only in control of a welfare state without any possibility of economic prosperity.
St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA)
