‘NMI to benefit from mobile app’

Guam senator-elect William Mendiola Castro is assisting the CNMI in developing a mobile app that would make land and environmental information easily accessible, cutting the hassle and trouble of going to government agencies. Castro, who is Bureau of Statistics and Plans director in Guam, made a brief presentation yesterday on how the app works.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, press secretary and representative-elect Ivan A. Blanco, Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Richard B. Seman, and Reps. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan) and Vince F. Sablan (Ind-Saipan) were in attendance at the presentation, held at the Office of the Governor conference room.

Castro, who is a senior staff of Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo, said the same technology that they have in Guam would give CNMI citizens a chance to have the information right at their fingertips.

“The technology puts the information on the hands of the citizens. It allows people to get information on lands, environmental hazards and safety, buildings, and public safety. It is helpful especially for a private citizen who had been away for a long time and wants to get a copy of the information about lands,” said Castro.

“You could look at the app and find out the property’s value, and for the developer if it wants to build a multi-level structure. The mobile app should be able to tell you if there’s some problems, like if it is on wetlands and you don’t want to develop a property there.”

He said the presentation is part of an ongoing meeting to see on how both Guam and the CNMI could share information and the things needed to set up the same app here in the Commonwealth. “So we need to see which are not yet digital and the information that already have digital copies. If you don’t have [digital copies], there is greater need to digitize.”

Castro, who is a former Office of Technology chief information officer in Guam, said the app decentralizes information and is more efficient. “You can access information any time of the day, from any part of the world.”

He said the idea of setting up the same app in the CNMI started when he met Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Richard B. Seman in a federally funded event about fisheries in the U.S. mainland. “Secretary Seman and I agreed that we needed to work on this together. So he and Rep. [Edwin] Propst invited me.”

“We love to share the technology and it all depends on what information you wanted. The app costs between $10,000 to $30,000 and this is a small investment when you talk about it. Just think about how people could get access to information and the opportunity to generate money.”