Promoting local entrepreneurship and business success

Editor’s Note: The following is the text of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s remarks at the opening of the CDA-Commerce Business Forum, held at the Saipan World Resort yesterday, Aug. 28, 2008.

Welcome to the 2008 CNMI Business Forum sponsored by the Commonwealth Development Authority and the CNMI Department of Commerce.

I am proud of the efforts made by CDA and Mike Ada, our new Secretary of Commerce, to organize this event for the benefit of our local community.

The CNMI today is struggling through an economy in transition. With the collapse of our manufacturing base and the imposition of federal immigration and minimum wage legislation, our old model of economic development, which has worked so successfully over the past 20 years, is broken. We can no longer expect to have liberal access to foreign workers in order to grow our economy, and our minimum wage rates are no longer set by local authorities based on prevailing local market conditions. These policies are now in the hands of un-elected federal agencies in Washington, D.C. This is an enormous challenge indeed. And this enormous challenge is further compounded by our public utilities problem.

While our local government works for adequate access to labor by dealing with the federal government, we must do what we can to innovate and survive these lean times. We must take advantage of the opportunities that exist, as well as the opportunities we can expect to exist in the future. The Federal government has restricted our labor force, a considerable factor of production, to be sure, but we can still make use of our land, innovation, entrepreneurship, and human capital, while we strive to secure reasonable access to needed labor.

To have a successful economy, we need land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. We need education, skills, knowledge, and technology. We need successful enterprises and a skilled and educated workforce. We need the rule of law, reasonable regulations, and the proper incentives, including reasonable fees and tax rates. We also need the proper physical and legal infrastructure for businesses to flourish. Our economy and our government will never succeed without successful and profitable business enterprises.

How do we attract and develop more CNMI businesses? How do we improve our economy? These are legitimate questions for today’s business forum and I encourage your full participation in coming up with answers or even more questions for us to consider.

I expect this forum to be an opportunity for dialogue between the public and private sectors. We are all confronted by the same challenges and we must work together to find our way forward to a more prosperous future.

In the wake of the collapse of our manufacturing base, one of the most promising opportunities we see before us is the multi-billion dollar military build-up in the coming years. How do we best capitalize on such opportunities? That is also a question for us to discuss in this business forum.

What can we do to promote more local entrepreneurship and business success? What threats and opportunities can we find in the current economic environment?

I look forward to hearing your considerations and I thank you for your participation. Please take full advantage of this forum to learn how we can improve our business climate by working together toward the common goal of reaching greater levels of prosperity and economic stability. Thank you for attending this forum.