Fund’s Camacho to attend RP conference

Only one member of the NMI Retirement Fund board will attend the 6th Pacific Region Investment Conference in Manila this week, said Fund administrator Mark Aguon.

The conference, organized by the Guam-based Asia Pacific Association for Fiduciary Studies, will be held this Thursday and Friday at Shangri-la Makati.

“Mr. Camacho is going as chair of the [board’s] committee on finance and committee,” said Aguon in an interview.

Camacho serves as the acting chairman of the Fund board following the expiration of term of former chair Joseph Reyes last September.

Other board trustees are Bertha Deleon Guerrero, Rose Igitol, Steven King, and newly confirmed members Pedro Dela Cruz and Juan Pan Guerrero.

Aguon, who earlier cited the importance of the Manila conference due to its timeliness to the CNMI situation, said that he, too, cannot make it to the investment gathering.

Aguon is himself vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the APAFS.

“I still believe that it’s a very important meeting. I can’t make it there, however. We’ll be represented by the acting chair,” said Aguon.

A source said that even Camacho had initially refused to leave for Manila “because of what others might think of his trip to the city.”

Manila, a mega-city of over 12 million people and considered a haven for shopping and dining, is often perceived by some NMI residents “as a great hideaway for men to have fun.” Manila is a mere three-hour trip from Saipan.

Aguon earlier said that conference issues are geared toward fiduciary responsibilities.

“ It’s a great opportunity for the trustees and other CNMI leaders to attend it. It’s a regional conference so you’d here from other countries their experience.”

The organizer earlier estimated that the conference would gather hundreds of delegates from Saipan, Guam, and other Micronesian islands.

The conference will feature several speakers including Insular Affairs deputy assistant secretary David B. Cohen, who will talk about trust funds in U.S. government policy for assistance in developing insular economies and Philippine Social Security Association president Corazon dela Paz, who is also the president of Geneva-based International Social Security Association.

Other speakers are Norman E. Nabhan, CIMA, Immediate Past President and Member of the Board of Directors, Investment Management Consultants Association; Louis Boulanger, CFA, former Chief Executive of Mercer Investment Consulting, New Zealand; Ruby Menon, General Counsel for two large multi-employer retirement plans for over 10 years; Philip Erquiaga, Director General, Pacific Department, Asian Development Bank; and Robert Bestani, Director General, Private Sector Finance Department, Asian Development Bank.

The organizer said that the conference will also be attended by representatives from conference sponsors which include ASC Trust Corp., Atalanta Sosnoff, Business Mirror, Consulting Group, Davis Hamilton Jackson & Associates LLP, First Hawaiian Bank, Franklin Templeton Institutional, Janus, Metropolitan West Capital Management LLC, Kaplan Fox, MetroBank Richmond Capital Management, Continental Airlines, Glimpses Advertising and Glimpses Publications, Great Lakes Advisors Inc., Milliman and RCM.

APAFS is a non-profit educational and charitable association founded in 2000 for and by representatives from public and private institutional funds from the Asia-Pacific region, with the goal of “raising the level of the understanding and standards of practice among fiduciaries in the region, so that they might provide the most prudent stewardship of the funds entrusted to their care.”