Page 33 - IB JAN 2017

Business

Tourism continues to be a big part of the the CNMI economy. Photo: Jon Perez/ Pacific Islands Times
City Group is constructing Plumeria businesses favor cheap labor by using
Resort in Puntan Diablo cove while foreign workers.
Bridge Investment is developing a But labor cost in the CNMI is no longer
1,800-square property in Kammer Beach as cheap as it used to be.
into a $USD150-million Tinian Ocean The hourly minimum wage has in-
View Resort. International name-brand creased from $6.05 to $6.55. The next
restaurants and other shops have also tranche — another 50 cents — will be
been sprouting on Saipan. implemented next year. The staggered
If the cranes, cement trucks, rigs, and wage hike will continue until the hourly
busses that transport workers to the rate reaches the federal level of $7.25
construction sites would be the gauge, it by 2018.
might be safe to say the CNMI is slowly However, a pending bill by Rep. Angel
coming out of a recession that hit the A. Demapan at the CNMI Legislature
commonwealth more than 10 years wants to skip the gradual increase and
ago. Economic activity and development move the minimum wage straight to
started slowing down in the early 2000s. $7.25. It has passed the Senate with
At one point, it was at a standstill after amendments and the House is now
one by one the garment factories, which reviewing it.
pumped in huge amounts of dollars to The CNMI government and the busi-
the CNMI government’s coffers, closed ness sector have been advocating for
changes in labor and immigration poli-
down following the expiration of the
Deadline looms for Northern Mari ana Islands General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade cies to help the local economy’s recovery
from years of recession, which was
in the early 2000s.

Section 902 talks compounded by the devastation brought
by Typhoon Soudelor last year.
The Torres administration brought up Aside from asking the federal govern-
the CNMI’s labor and immigration issues ment to ease some of the restrictions,
to a series of Section 902 talks with a they are also encouraging to build a
Mariana, which is the first phase of federal panel led by Assistant Secretary local labor pool, especially those gradu-
the Hong Kong-based conglomerate’s of the Interior for Insular Areas Esther ating from local high schools, those
multi-billion dollar project in the CNMI. Kia’ana. who finished vocational courses at the
BSI will also be taking over the land At the US House of Representatives, Northern Marianas Trades Institute, and
where the Mariana Resort & Spa and CNMI Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan the Northern Marianas College.
Mariana Country Club is located where has introduced H.R. 588 proposing to They are also encouraging local resi-
they would transform the property into amend P.L. 110-229. dents, who are either finishing college or
another hotel and waterpark, which is The proposed amendments include an residing in the mainland to come back
part of phase two project. extension of the CW-1 program up to home to work and share the knowledge
Kensington Hotel, owned by E-Land 2029; inclusion of the CNMI in the visa they acquired. But the government had
Group of Korea, opened in July after approval process; and increase in visa repeatedly said that even with those
more than one year of refurbishing the cap to 18,000. combined, they would still face labor
old Nikko Hotel in the northern side The Torres administration believes shortage that’s why they’ve been ask-
of Saipan. Two more hotels are being this proposed figure is viable enough to ing the federal government for some
developed, one of which is beside the sustain the Commonwealth’s renewed leniency.
Pacific Islands Club-Saipan in San Anto- economic activity. They are waiting for the decision and
nio and another one in Capital Hill going The CW-1 issue, however, became since it is an election year, they could
up the Governor’s Office. a touchy subject for some of the local expect some answers after the new
On Tinian, the Macau-based Alter residents and U.S. citizens, who felt that administration settles in next year.

Islands Business, January 2017 33