Chamber leader offers ways to attract investors

Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Lynn Knight yesterday said the CNMI government should first find a way to improve the business climate for existing businesses before looking for new investments.

Ms. Knight cited the need to remove restrictive laws which affect labor and development costs in the CNMI. “We need to return to a free market economy without too many restraints of protectionist laws which only serve to restrain business opportunity.
While we might have needed such laws to get a handle on our growth, times have changed and appropriate for recessionary times,” she said in a letter to Rep. William Torres.

Even before off-island investors are considered, government leaders can reach out to current businesses, hold a dialogue and seek their suggestions on how the administration can help restore business confidence, she said.

And since any new investor will seek references from those that are already here, Ms. Knight said it would be easy for the current businesses to convince them to push through with their plan and tell them that the Northern Marianas is a great place to live in and work.

“I think, if a prospective investors asked about the land system here and its constraints with Article XII, the development process, labor availability and changing laws, the infrastructure limitations, labor availability and changing laws, the infrastructure limitations, etc.. they’d get a largely negative review,” she said.

In enticing new investors, the CNMI government should consider following up the plans made by its prospective investors in the past to find out why they never materialized and what can be done to change their minds.

One company that had considered doing business in the CNMI in the early ’90s and then left was Shimizu Construction.

“About marketing the CNMI, we should consider targeting our efforts to best suit the advantages that we have and the businesses we would most like to attract. Rather than shooting in the dark, let’s figure out what we want and then go to the best companies in the world that do those things and make them offers they can’t refuse,” Ms. Knight said.

If the CNMI wants to attract American investment, the Northern Marianas may have to do a lot of work to change its image through positive public relations in the mainland to counter the bad image of the island.

With the present confusion on which government agency is really responsible for encouraging investment, the Commonwealth Development Agency or the Department of Commerce (whichever is chosen) must embrace the responsibility wholeheartedly and be given the resources and backing of policy makers to get the job done, she added.