The President receives four ministers who came to provide an update, 6 months after Irma

The President receives four ministers who came to provide an update, 6 months after Irma

A delegation of four ministers, led by Overseas Minister Annick Girardin, composed of Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Action and Public Accounts, Sébastien Lecornu, Secretary of State to the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition and Julien Denormandie, Secretary of State to the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, were welcomed in Saint-Martin , March 4 and 5, 2018.

After the Republican welcome on the tarmac of Grand Case airport, Sunday March 4 at midday, President Gibbs led the ministers into the village of Orient Bay to show the impact of Irma's damage on this exposed part of the island. The procession then moved to Quartier d’Orléans, to meet the affected population. A stop was made at a solidarity reconstruction project carried out by the Compagnons du Devoir in partnership with the Collectivity of Saint-Martin and the Fondation de France, which collected part of the donations from the French for our territory and which is undertaking actions to service to our population.
The delegation then visited the Grandes Cayes ecosite, where it was welcomed by the director of Verde SXM, Jean-Pierre Tey. The latter informed the ministers about the waste treatment chain, particularly end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). The day ended with a visit to two local hotels, the Beach Hotel in Marigot and the Samanna in Terres-Basses. President Gibbs wanted to highlight the damage suffered by the Saint-Martin hotel park and the difficulties encountered by these structures.

The next day, President Gibbs welcomed the ministerial delegation at the Hôtel de the community, where a working meeting was held for more than an hour on urgent issues.
“My main concern was to convey my concern and that of my population about the approaching hurricane season, and the urgent need to protect all of our fellow citizens,” indicated President Gibbs who also clarified that the Community had been working tirelessly on this issue for several months, on the aspect of prevention and anti-cyclonic shelters in particular and that help from the state was now necessary.

On At this point, the Minister for Overseas has committed to supporting the Community and “bringing all people to safety within 6 months”. The minister also indicated that she would do her best to “accelerate reconstruction and remove obstacles”, particularly on the reimbursement of insurance, a point on which the President of the Republic was personally committed.
Regarding economic recovery, a major point of local concerns, Minister Darmanin is committed to “supporting the economic restructuring of Saint-Martin”.

President Gibbs was satisfied with this point stage, he also saluted the four ministers and the entire government for having made regular field trips to Saint-Martin.
Daniel Gibbs intends to give up nothing for the development of his territory, he will take off for Paris at the end of this week to go to the interministerial meeting on March 12, where the financial decisions for reconstruction and the Multi-annual Investment and Catch-up Plan (PPIR) will be decided.

The president now hopes that the “political” work which has been carried out in partnership with the State over the last 6 months to initiate and supervise the reconstruction of Saint-Martin, will give way to a phase of financial and technical support from the of the State and the implementation of concrete actions in the field of reconstruction.