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Chamber backs Tourism Development Act proposal
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Posted on Jul 10 2000
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has thrown its support to a proposed measure seeking to establish a Tourism Development Act saying it will attract potential investors into the Northern Marianas.
According to Lynn A. Knight, Chamber president, the Legislature should consider providing assistance to existing businesses which may need funds for renovation or expansion.
Setting a $250,000 minimum investment for small family-owned hotels in Saipan, Tinian and Rota may be too large. Such requirement may be reduced for hotels under 100 rooms, Ms. Knight said in a letter to Rep. Florencio T. De Leon Guerrero, chair of House Committee on Commerce and Tourism.
The Chamber has been batting for the creation of a business-friendly environment in the Northern Marianas to entice more investors to come to the CNMI at this time when the it is still reeling from the effects of Asia’s economic crisis.
At the same time, it is also supporting moves to a propose legislation that will provide tax breaks to those businesses that provide training to local people.
The business sector and the hotel industry have earlier expressed concern on the effect of hiring untrained people on the quality of service provided by the establishments.
Many businesses that are already spending huge amount of money for the training of its staff have complained of the huge cost it entails for them to do so at this time when they could barely survive the slowdown in the island’s economy.
While developing programs to hire and train local people are a priority of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, it is also hoping that incentives will be provided to those who spend huge chunk of their budget for the skills improvement of their staff.
The Chamber has emphasized the need to help create business-friendly environment after a number of investors, mostly Japanese and Koreans, have left the island when the region was hit by recession.
