Search Results for: Sint Maarten

On July 3, 2021, the European Union’s (EU) groundbreaking, detailed and wide-ranging directive intended to reduce plastic litter came into force: the directive on single use plastics (SUP) (1) – as it affects a key competitor, the metal packaging sector has been keeping a close eye on the fallout.…

EUROPEAN can manufacturers say that the European Union (EU) climate law’s target to cut carbon emissions at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, compared to “between 50% and 55%” in the original proposal (1) and just 32.5% by 2030 in the 2018 law (2) will be a challenge, but one they are on track to meet.…

Anti-money laundering specialists may be focusing on how crypto-currencies and online transactions pose an increasing ML/TF risk, especially with Covid-19 encouraging ecommerce, but the reality is that cash remains the money launderers’ best instrument for moving dirty money.

That is the conclusion of Gabriel Hidalgo, a managing director at risk specialists K2 Integrity, in New York: “Cash is king for ML; it continues to be king; and on the majority of levels, illicit actors will continue to use cash,” he said.…

THE UNITED Kingdom’s definitive exit from the European Union (EU) on December 31, 2020, after an 11-month transition period, will severely disrupt the UK and European can manufacturing industry, experts have told CanTech International. That said, industry figures acknowledge however that, by avoiding blanket tariffs and a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, the UK/EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) (1) signed on Christmas Eve did head off economic disaster. …

UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

European aluminium cansheet and foilsheet rolling factories say they are trying hard to adapt to production under strict Covid-19 controls imposed by their national governments to satisfy the growing need for foodstuffs across Europe that are safe and have a long shelf life.…

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has released plans to lend USD 50 million to finance the rehabilitation of Princess Juliana International Airport. in Sint Maarten, which was badly damaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria, in September 2017. The loan to the airport’s operating company would finance the internal reconstruction of the passenger terminal, including dry walls, furniture, counters, electrical systems, IT, the baggage system, and security installations.…

THE DUTCH Caribbean continues to have a weak reputation for fighting money laundering, and to a lesser extent terror financing, with the US 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) highlighting weaknesses in its three autonomous jurisdictions. See https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/268024.pdf

Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are ‘countries’ within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with their own prime ministers, while less populous islands Bonaire, St Eustatius (Statia) and Saba are municipalities, with fewer powers vested in their island councils, and the Dutch government being responsible for enforcing international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) norms.…

The future holds bright promise for India’s instant noodles segment as it will grow at an average annual rate of about 7% until 2023, predicted consultancy firm Technopak.

This market is so big that all noodle companies can co-exist, Suman Dabas, Technopak’s associate director food and agriculture, told just-food.…

INSTANT noodles have become one of the most popular ready-to-cook meals in India with marketing campaigns highlighting their cooking convenience and popularity with children.

With annual sales of USD640 million in 2017, this Indian food segment is growing at 13.4% annually, according to data from London-based market analysis company Euromonitor International.…

CONTRACTORS at Sint Maarten’s hurricane-battered airport are battling against the clock to complete major repairs by the start of the new tourist season in November.

Princess Juliana International Airport was one of several across the Caribbean pummeled by catastrophic Hurricane Irma in September 2017.…

JOINING expertise from the public and private sector to combat money laundering or terrorism financing (TF) aided by virtual currencies (VCs) is the way forward, financial crime experts told MEPs at the June 18 meeting of the European Parliament’s special committee on terrorism.…

PRINCESS Juliana International Airport, the Sint Maarten-based north-east Caribbean hub, which suffered heavy damage from last September’s Hurricane Irma, has opened an air-conditioned temporary departures pavilion. A temporary arrivals pavilion maybe open by April, as repairs to the airport’s permanent terminal interior, seriously flooded by Irma, continue.…

RUNNING a complex international air travel business that recovering from 2017’s devastating hurricane season, Caribbean airline boss Julie Reifer-Jones is having to draw on her near three decades’ experience in senior financial management.

Immaculately presented, in killer heels, Reifer-Jones FCCA is not just the first female CEO of Antigua-based airline LIAT, she is the only female CEO of any airline in the Caribbean.…

CANADIAN air traffic control specialist Aeronav has supplied a temporary mobile ATC tower at Anguilla’s Clayton J Lloyd International Airport, after the existing facility was damaged by September’s category five storm Hurricane Irma. The Aeronav ANT-57 Mobile Tower System will stay in use until a new permanent tower, now under construction, is completed.…

Russia and three Gulf countries are planning to establish an aluminium industry association whose goal is reducing overproduction in the global market, raising prices for the metal.

Despite the ongoing diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its neighbours, the Russian government says it has already started talks with the governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, regarding establishing the new association.…

Russia and three Gulf countries are planning to establish an aluminium industry association whose goal is reducing overproduction in the global market, raising prices for the metal.

Despite the ongoing diplomatic standoff between Qatar and its neighbours, the Russian government says it has already started talks with the governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, regarding establishing the new association.…

South-east Asia is a region that has sharp contrasts in economic development, from between the wealth of Singapore to countries such as Myanmar, where poverty is endemic and consumer markets are relatively undeveloped.

Such contrasts pose challenges for personal care product companies seeking regional strategies to tap the markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) 10 countries, whose cosmetics suppliers have to comply with the standards of the ASEAN Cosmetics Directive, which was modelled on European Union legislation.…

A NEW agreement between the United States and the Netherlands that came into force in February will facilitate cooperation in civil aviation safety between US- and Dutch-controlled air space in the Caribbean. With this umbrella agreement in place, the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Netherlands aviation authorities, Dutch and American air navigation service providers are now looking at how they can coordinate air traffic controls within American and Dutch jurisdictions.…

THE CARIBBEAN is maybe the most culturally diverse region in the world and this has been reflected in its colourful, tasty and varied cuisine. So it is no surprise that the region’s confectionery sector is innovative, drawing on unusual combinations of ingredients that create tasty products that could serve as inspiration for companies around the world.…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of states and governments have urged their ministers to agree important pieces of draft EU legislation that could potentially curb tax evasion in the bloc.

Meeting during a European Council meeting in Brussels last week (May 22), leaders were under pressure to act from media reports revealing how much untaxed incomes politicians, companies and rich business owners have stashed in tax havens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

Discord has hit the usually placid calm of European Union (EU) financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors: a dissident ex-member says EU fraud and mismanagement is even worse than we think. Keith Nuthall explains.

It was something of a surprise when Dutch auditor Maarten Engwirda marked his retirement from the Luxembourg-based court with what amounted to an accounting kiss-and-tell exclusive in the Netherlands’ De Volkskrant newspaper.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL

UKIP MEP and former European Commission chief accountant Marta Andreasen wants the European Union (EU) to use external audits following claims from a former EU Court of Auditors member that irregularities are swept under the carpet.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, KARRYN MILLER, GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, KEITH NUTHALL

FOR niche spirits, obscure can be good – and so products made in countries not renowned for their spirits production can gather export market cache. Latin America and the Caribbean are regions where effort by buyers can pay dividends.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

DEFINING a niche drink is an arbitrary matter and what may pass as niche today may well be considered mainstream tomorrow. Flavoured vodka, for instance, had a relatively specialised following in Europe until a few years ago – now it is classified as an official spirit drink under European Union (EU) regulations.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

A decade ago, Latin America was considered to be one of the beer industry’s toughest markets, due to frequent bouts of economic uncertainty and political turmoil. But a lot has changed in the region since the year 2000, and recently instead of recoiling from this region, the biggest beer companies in the world have been fighting tooth and nail for shares of it.…

BY MARVIN HOKSTAM

WHEN aviation executives gathered in Sint Maarten for the eighth Airports Conference of the Americas (July 20-22, 2008), not even the cosy Caribbean atmosphere could change their gloomy disposition on their industry. With rising fuel costs, out-of-control energy bills, airline capacity shortages and the effects of terrorism’s relentless onslaught in travel, aviation has no shortage of challenges; the officials acknowledged that there is no quick fix to their problems, so their discussions centred on alternatives.…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA and JUHEL BROWNE

"CASINOS are an important part of the development of the Caribbean tourist sector, yet they hold a particular attraction to money launderers. Casinos provide the venues for large flows of cash, which launderers can utilise to disguise the true origins of their criminal proceeds."…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London, and SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten, Dutch West Indies

AS with much of life today, the future of gambling is closely tied to the Internet, and this development of an international industry based on instant cross-border cash flows has raised understandable concerns about money laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXPERT scientific report from the European Commission has suddenly made it respectable to talk once again about lifting the European Union (EU) ban on snus, the smokeless tobacco product from Sweden whose sale in other member states has been prohibited by an EU directive since 1992.…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, JAMES FULLER, in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR shake up is looming in the political organisation of the Caribbean, with the impending dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles federation, and the creation of separate political units for its composite islands Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius (Statia).…

BY SUZANNE KOELEGA, in Sint Maarten
AS leaders of various Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries and US President George Bush debated regional security in Washington DC in June, Caribbean nations continue to struggle with serious commercial crime that threatens their regional stability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten
A NEW Caribbean airport terminal has been opened to secure Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport’s (PJIA) role as a regional hub. Formally launched by the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix November 10, the airport serves the world’s smallest territory split between two sovereign states (Dutch Sint Maarten and French Saint Martin).…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten and Anguilla

DOLPHINARIUMS are an increasingly sought after once in a lifetime experience but these marine amusement parks remain controversial. Is it about big business exploiting these highly intelligent creatures for fat profits or do they provide people with an intimate experience that allows them to better understand them?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten
A CARIBBEAN brewery claiming to manufacture the world’s only beer made from desalinated seawater will close, following a decision by its owners Antillean Brewery, which is 56% controlled by Heineken. Brewing a range of Amstel beers on the Netherlands Antilles island of Curaçao, the closure is likely to cost 55 employees their jobs.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON and KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPORTS and entertainment industries thirst for sponsorship, and with the ever-growing boom in televising sporting events worldwide via satellite, the chance to expose a drinks company logo to world audiences in their billions should make sponsorship a sellers’ market.…

BY MONICA DOBIE and KEITH NUTHALL, in Sint Maarten and Anguilla

DOLPHINARIUMS are an increasingly sought after once in a lifetime experience but these marine amusement parks remain controversial. Is it about big business exploiting these highly intelligent creatures for fat profits or do they provide people with an intimate experience that allows them to better understand them?…

BY MARK WILSON
AWASH with recently-passed legislation and newly-established Financial Investigation Units, the small nations of the Caribbean have transformed their money laundering controls since the mid-1990s. In 2000, five Caribbean island jurisdictions made up one-third of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of fifteen non-cooperative countries and territories, each of them with ‘serious systemic problems,’ in the words of a FATF review published on June 22 of that year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL aid programmes are often regarded as a soft touch by criminals, who try to plunder their fat budgets, thinking that they are controlled by well-meaning innocents. Not so the World Bank; it has been investigating fraud in its development projects for years and it is getting tougher.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has created an anti-corruption department that will investigate allegations of fraud within the organisation’s staff or in projects it funds. The bank has recently appointed a director of the department, Maarten de Jong, a Dutchman, Managing Director of the European Institute for Law Enforcement Cooperation.…