Thoughts over Asian coffee

The presentation on CNMI economics I had planned for this month is on hold. I’m more in the mood for action than talk, so I have fast-tracked a small manufacturing idea that’s been nibbling at my mind for a couple of years. Consequently, I ditched the zoris for spit-shined wingtips, as I’ve found myself staying in industrial Asia and meeting with factories. If all goes well, I hope I can create at least a couple of good jobs on Saipan out of this.

But, right now, that’s all a big and foggy “maybe.”

The reason it’s taking me so long to get my arms around this is that it’s my first hands-on exposure to manufacturing. My entire career has thus far been in the service sector, generally the finance and economics realms of health care, tourism, wind energy, and aviation. Heck, even writing is a service industry. Come to think of it, my military time was service as well.

Saipan offers some advantages as a gateway between Asia’s factories and America’s consumer carts. We’ve got a very talented and affordable English-speaking labor pool, thanks largely to (but, of course, not exclusively to) the Filipino community. Telephone rates to the states are reasonable, thanks to the accomplishments of Froilan Tenorio’s administration. And, overall, Saipan is a pleasant place to work, do business, and live.

But these pluses are staring at a growing wall of things to worry about, as you know. Electricity rates and federalization are the two top worries on my mind. Meanwhile, air fares to the outside world seem insanely high, and this alone can swing a business idea into the un-feasible category.

Whether the CNMI wants real jobs, or just permanent government handouts, is not merely a matter of economics, it’s a matter of ethics. The private sector is genuinely hated in many CNMI quarters, but maybe there remains a small core of appreciation for it. Or, maybe there doesn’t. It’s hard to tell.

Anyway, if you’ve been saturating your soul in the CNMI’s woes lately, it really is refreshing to take a gander at functional economies with work ethics and risk-taking such as Taiwan or Hong Kong. There’s an energy, a buzz, and an optimism that keeps the mind sharp and the blood pumping.

For example, this morning I had coffee with a random stranger at a proximate restaurant table, who turned out to be an MIT-educated scientist turned businessman. He’s savvy in the ways of Asian factories, and gave me a few pointers. When you have an economy that attracts people of that caliber, it gets a virtuous economic ball rolling.

Yes, brains attract brains. And production attracts production: In fact, that’s what capital is by its very definition, it’s the only economic factor of production that produces itself. That’s why smart, rich countries get richer, and backwards, nasty ones don’t.

The advanced world is moving ahead so rapidly that it’s mind-blowing.

And it’s not just the high-tech elite who are part of the action. A Hong Kong hawker made a good sales pitch to me, so I found myself getting measured for clothes by a tailor in a small custom shop. My interest in gentlemanly haberdashery is exactly nil, but I admired the entrepreneurial gumption of these guys.

Yes, there’s a lot to be done. A lot of work, and lot of thinking, and a lot of planning, and even a lot of risk taking. I’m enjoying it. These days, Saipan has so many talkers and bureaucrats, and so few doers, that’s it’s fun to be among some doers, even if I can’t even speak the language and need help ordering even a simple cup of coffee. Now that I’m on my second cup, such are my thoughts. So, I’ll stir this around: What remains of the private sector can try to help Saipan, but will Saipan even try to help itself?