Jones upbeat about trade zone prospects •Tinian offers site available for conversion into trade zone

The Free Trade Zone Committee is recommending a $1,000 monthly rental per acre for the first 20 hectares or about 40 acres that will be leased out to prospective investors.

According to Bob Jones, chairman of the Free Trade Zone Committee, the Commonwealth Ports Authority stands to earn some $32,000 per month after 20 percent of the 40 acres has been set aside for road development.

While the committee cannot guarantee that CPA will find the desired number of investors, Jones said he believes that it is possible to entice them over a period of time.

In a letter to Carlos H. Salas, executive director, Jones said the lease in the second phase of the free trade zone development involving an additional 40 acres shall be $1,500 per acre per month. Furthermore, the third phase of 40 acres shall amount to $2,000. per acre per month.

If the 60 hectares in the planned free trade zone will be leased by investors, the ports authority will earn some $1.72 million annually, Jones said. This does not include the additional income from anticipated cargo business that will be generated from the free trade zone.

In a related development, Tinian Mayor Francisco M. Borja has asked CPA to include a portion of its property which is approximately 264,000 sq.m. located near Tinian Harbor, in the development of a free trade zone on the island-municipality of Tinian.

He hopes that the ports authority would include the three areas which his office has identified in the pending free trade zone legislation before the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Borja noted that the ports authority has actually set aside the use of this property for free trade zone activity in its harbor master plan developed in 1997.

The recommended rates will give the prospective investor an incentive to make substantial capital investments in the CNMI and help the ports authority realize long term monthly rental revenue from its idle property, he added.

The committee is looking at the possibility of using the CPA property near the airport for the initial phase of the project. Such concept, patterned after the Philippines and Hwaii will be unveiled in this week’s economic conference to be held on Saipan.

CPA is required to maintain a uniform, non-discriminatory rental rate structure for all its tenants, unless the Federal Aviation Administration agrees to allow CPA to rent its property within the free trade zone site at a lesser rate.

While the proposed Free Trade Zone Authority may designate sites within the property owned by CPA, Salas believes that revenue generated from the leases should go to the ports authority.

Officials and businessmen are pinning their hopes on this effort to revive the island’s worsening economic condition which has forced many businesses to close shop.

Jones believes that investors would still be attracted to set up businesses here despite the federalization of minimum wage but the free trade zone may face problems if restrictions on the entry of skilled non-resident workers would be imposed.