Philipsburg—The Department of Communication (DCOMM) recently conducted an interview with the advisory body, the Social Economic Council, in Dutch Sociaal Economishche Raad, also widely known as SER for its TV Program Inside Government.
DCOMM spoke to the chairlady of the SER board, Oldine Bryson-Pantophlet, who elaborated on the role of the board and the responsibilities of its board members.
Chairlady Bryson-Pantophlet talked about who can bring issues to the table for the organization of SER to discuss and provide advice on. She also indicated that the board consists of 3 representatives from each sector as follows, representing the Employees are members of the unions, representing the Employers are members from SHTA & Chamber of Commerce and there are three Independent members representing the interest of the general public.
DCOMM also sat with the Secretary General, Gerard Richardson, who elucidated on the details of the organization, from the role and responsibilities of the Secretary General to that of the board and how the organization maneuvers the political landscape as an advisory body to Government.
SG Richardson explained that the SER was started in 2010, as one of the requirements for St. Maarten becoming a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
SER is an advisory body that provides advice, solicited and unsolicited, on socio-economic issues to Government, whether such was requested or not. The aim is to increase the quality of life for residents of St. Maarten, Richardson said.
He also pointed out that the advices the organization has produced, are with the input of everyone who wanted to have their opinion included.
Some of the advices completed over the years include the monetary union, tax remittance, pension system and the counterpart policy. SER has also accomplished working visits, fact finding missions, annual reports & hosted several symposiums.
The interview with SER will air on April 15th St. Maarten Cable TV on channel 115 at 7:00pm and is available for viewing at www.stmaartengov.org. For more information on SER visit its website www.sersxm.org
DCOMM urges the public to tune in to the Inside Government TV Program and hear what the representatives of SER have to share about the organization and what can be learned about the benefits of such an organization to the community at large.
