Local businessmen to pitch NMI at DOI confab

At least four businesses will make their pitch on behalf of the Commonwealth at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Business Opportunities Conference this month.

The group will consist of International Business and Professional College president and CEO Herman P. Sablan, accountant David Burger, consultant William Tucker, and a representative from the environmental consulting firm Earth Tech.

Sablan will speak during a session titled “Education as a Business Opportunity: Training and Degree Programs.”

Burger will address participants on the tax structure and related advantages of doing business in the Commonwealth. These include the CNMI’s tax rebate policy, and its duty-free status for eligible goods exported to the United States.

Tucker, chairman of Washington, D.C.-based Tucker & Associates, will discuss the feasibility of developing Guam and the CNMI as training venues for several U.S. and Canadian teams expected to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Tucker, the co-chairman of the International Relations Committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1997 to 2001, has been on island recently to assess the islands’ sports facilities as part of a $53,000 technical grant from the Interior Department.

For its part, Earth Tech will make a presentation on wastewater system projects for Kagman village on Saipan and the island of Tinian.

Galvin Deleon Guerrero, the governor’s special assistant for special projects, said about seven others have confirmed their attendance to the conference.

Yesterday, Deleon Guerrero urged Saipan Rotary Club members who belong to the private sector to participate in the conference to be held on Sept. 23 and 24 at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

He said the conference offers opportunities for local businessmen to partner with national and international companies.

The fact that the Interior Department is doing the invitation to businesses brings a huge advantage, he said. “We expect a lot of big players to be there. Moreover, the Department of the Interior is not just sending blanket invitations, but invitations to the right businesses,” he told the Rotary Club members at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday.

Businesses that decide to attend the conference will pay their own way.

Deleon Guerrero also reported on preparations being made for the conference, which he said the government is treating as a trade show of sorts. Different giveaways, a promotional video, and other educational materials are only some of the items that the delegation will bring for display or distribution at the gathering.

“This year’s conference follows the successful 2003 conference in which more than 500 businesspeople and others joined Secretary [Gale] Norton and top officials from the U.S. territories to hear expert panels discuss opportunities in a variety of industries,” a news release from the U.S. Interior Department said.

The 2004 conference will be expanded to include the freely associated states—the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau—as well as the territories.