US computer companies interested in NMI

The Northern Marianas has the potential to become a new investment site for the rapidly-growing information technology (IT) because of its proximity to Asian countries and its link with the United States, according to officials.

Local lawmakers on a visit to Washington D.C. met Monday (Tuesday, Saipan time) with the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an organization of giant IT companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Intel to discuss the possibility of establishing such industry on the island.

The delegation was briefed by BSA experts on the requirements of the industry before it can set up the business in a particular area.
These include copyright laws to protect the software products they manufacture as well as a good investment climate.

Rep. Bobby Guerrero, chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Tourism, said companies are “very interested” in exploring this type of business in the CNMI since they have already taken roots in some countries in Asia.

With membership from over 62 countries, BSA can help local leaders draw up a plan that will eventually open the Commonwealth to this new group of investors.

“It will be a tremendous opportunity for our people,” Mr. Guerrero told reporters in a telephone interview from Washington, noting the government can raise as much as $50 million in potential revenues.

Rep. Rosiky Camacho, chair of the Public Utilities, Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, underscored the importance of information technology in the development of telecommunications here. “This industry is willing to come to the CNMI,” he said in the same industry.

Before the group left for the nation’s capital last week, the House leadership has already eyed the potential of the industry on the island in a bid to boost the local economy.

It cites several advantages of the Commonwealth that can attract IT investors here, including its duty-free access to the U.S. — the biggest market for both software and hardware components of the sector.

Other assets of the island are the English language, local immigration control and its location being the closest U.S. territory to Asia as well as having a lower-cost structure than the mainland, while maintaining the same political and economic stability.

According to Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, these are the factors considered by software developers before they invest into a particular area outside the U.S.

“They are interested to come and invest in the CNMI because we have the basic ingredients,” he said during the same interview, noting our advantages of local immigration control as well as free access to the U.S. market.

While IT has continued to expand in the mainland in the last few years, the sector is facing difficulties in terms of having enough workers since the U.S. immigration limits entry of foreign labor.

But several Asian countries have picked up on the booming industry, becoming the fastest big emerging markets which can export IT products and services to the mainland.

The information technology is one area seriously being studied by the Legislature in efforts to expand the local economic base as well as to provide opportunities for the locals in terms of high-paying jobs and intensive training.