Chamber: Five-year limit would scare away investors

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce yesterday warned the Legislature against pushing for the five-year stay limit on nonresident workers in the CNMI saying it will discourage big businesses from investing in Northern Marianas.

Chamber president Gregg Kresge said the majority of business members are opposed to the employment restriction because it would be very expensive for them to send their nonresident workers back home after spending a lot of money on their training.

“Our stand has always been not to put any limit on the stay of non resident workers. I can understand the intent of the legislation but disregarding the social issues involved, it does not make sense to from a business standpoint,” he said.

While they have nothing against training the local graduates to replace nonresident workers, Kresge said there are job categories which employers are not adequately equipped for training such as auto mechanic and accountant.

The CNMI would find it hard to entice investments into tourism and garment industries because the employment restriction would hamper the growth of these type of businesses, Kresge said.

“They would only be able to attract businesses that will work within that time frame, but they would have difficulty enticing other investments,” he added.

Chamber officials led by Kresge met with Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio and legislative leaders including House Speaker Diego T. Benavente, Senate President Paul A. Manglona and Senate Vice President Thomas Villagomez, to explain their stand on the controversial issue.

Chamber officials asked the CNMI leaders to keep the issue on legislative level instead of incorporating it into the Constitution.

“It will be very hard to make changes later on when it is already in the Constitution,” said Kresge.

Senate Legislative 11-5, which seeks to limit the stay of nonresident workers to five years, is facing rough sailing in the House of Representatives.

Originally, the restriction covers all guest workers in the CNMI but Villagomez agreed to ease the limitation to cover only those who entered the Commonwealth on or after March 15, 1999 to win support of the House.

The governor considered the measure punitive, noting that the commonwealth still needs foreign manpower to complement the small local labor pool.