‘Fishing fleet to spend over $3M a year’

The newly formed commercial fishing group, Northern Mariana Fisheries Inc., projects to spend over $3 million a year in the CNMI for fleet support.

“I talked with the [Lady Kimberly] president over the holidays and one of the things that he mentioned was that the fleet support expenses would exceed $3 million a year. It means expenses for buying fuel and supplies. All these will be purchased on island so the direct impact to the CNMI economy is there,” said Department of Commerce economic development officer Glenn Manglona.

Earlier, Seattle-based Lady Kimberly president Courtney L. Zietzke said that his team has registered NMFI as a local corporation for a proposed commercial fishing project.

He said that the corporation has “unconditionally pledged vessel assets to the lending bank and the CDA for the project to commence.”

He said their two vessels have been certified at a value of $1.8 million.

Additional assets will be bought and pledged out of the proceeds of the funding being sought, he said.

The total assets being pledged for the project will exceed $2.5 million, Zietzke said.

His team has requested the Commonwealth Development Authority to provide a guaranty for $600,000 or 25 percent of the total capitalization.

As of now, Manglona said the CDA has not acted on the request.

On Dec. 1, the CDA wrote Zietzke asking his group to submit needed documents within a month. These requirements include a letter of commitment from a lending bank, which is Bank of Guam.

Manglona, speaking in support of the fishing project, said that it should be the CDA that should provide the guaranty letter first before the investor could get a letter of commitment from the bank.

“CDA should be the one to give the letter of commitment so the applicant can put together a letter to the bank. There’s not a word yet from CDA,” said Manglona.

Zietzke earlier said that he has submitted corporate documents to CDA confirming the formation of “two new CNMI corporations that are domiciled in the CNMI” for the pending commercial fishing project.

The insurance requirements, he said, are being met to satisfy all CNMI insurance regulations, and a new local office is being set up.

He said the new corporation, NMFI, is awaiting the CDA guarantee to complete a loan package with the Bank of Guam.

The local bank, he said, has indicated that the CDA must act first in order to complete the process.