CDA chided for slow response to on one-stop shop proposal

A proposed center handling information and needs of potential investors has yet to be established by the Commonwealth Development Authority nearly four months since the plan drew wide support from the business community.

Rep. William S. Torres, proponent of a one-stop shop in the CNMI for all investment needs and coordination, expressed dismay that CDA failed to follow through after the initial discussion in April.

The meeting between him and government officials as well as business representatives, including CDA, had reached an agreement to make the chief government lending agency to be a single-point of contact to facilitate local, foreign and U.S.-based investments here.

CDA Board Chair Juan S. Tenorio even had expressed his willingness to accept the task, but added that he needed to consult with the governor before making a final decision, according to Mr. Torres.

“However, I have yet to hear of the outcome of such a dialogue with the governor. It may very well be that the same group that met back in April should facilitate such conversation, so that issue is addressed once and for all,” he said.

“Only then could decisive action be taken through administrative means, thereby obviating future legislative action,” the representative wrote in a letter to Saipan Chamber of Commerce President Lynn Knight.

The lawmaker updated the business leader of his efforts to assist the business community, including plans to step up promotion and marketing efforts abroad about investment potentials in the CNMI.

He said Ms. Knight’s recommendation for an evaluation on why businessmen have shunned investing on the islands could help policy-makers and administration officials improve the current system in place.

“This assessment exercise will shed light on entrenched bottlenecks and ‘choked-hold’ proclivities that may have contributed to such business ‘pull-outs,’ especially those that ‘just gave up out of frustration with our confusing and changing development process,” said Mr. Torres.

Pitching his one-stop shop, the Saipan lawmaker vowed to assist the business sector in making the Commonwealth keep a good investment climate to ensure economic growth.

“[T]he one-stop shop for business investment information and assistance center to facilitate and expedite business investment through the development processes is a vital link to an orderly, simplified and progressive economic growth,” he told Ms. Knight.