‘CW crisis could impact Tinian’s development’

SAN JOSE, Tinian—The island has accomplished the first necessary steps needed to further develop Tinian, but island leaders fear that progress would be hampered by the current immigrant worker crisis.

Last Friday, Tinian officially opened its new international terminal and even welcomed a charter flight from Hong Kong.

According to Tinian Mayor Joey Patrick San Nicolas, the next step is the development of hotel rooms for prospective visitors.

San Nicolas said that Friday’s ribbon-cutting for the new international terminal is only the beginning for Tinian and they are expecting further developments.

Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the Tinian member on the Commonwealth Ports Authority board, said the creation of hotel rooms is crucial for the international terminal to be successful.

However, the development of more hotel rooms is up in the air due to the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker visa program crisis that the CNMI is currently facing.

“Of course it’s all about timing at this point because, as much as CPA would like to heavily invest…we have got to balance that with opening up hotels here,” she said. “That all kind of depends… because the issue with the CW situation is bringing a lot of uncertainty.”

Hinds said even if the island welcomes investors who are passionate about investing on Tinian, there would always be questions about where the workforce is going to come from.

“If you’re an investor and you’re looking to invest in a community like Tinian where infrastructure is very limited, you’re concerned as to where those worker are going to come from,” she said.

Even though the newly established terminal is a stepping stone for possible investments and island developments, she acknowledged that Tinian just does not have enough workforce.

“You can open up a new terminal but will they come, how can they come if there are no hotels? That is the challenge. Opening up hotels is very difficult, as you know. …You don’t have the workers here, you have the [Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino] but there are a lot of renovations that needs to be done and you need workers to do that and we just don’t have the capacity here,” she added.

Despite the crisis, King-Hinds said the mayor’s office will continue with efforts to find ways to attract and bring in investments into Tinian and, at least, with the terminal, another obstacle for development is knocked off the list.

“It’s a lot of work and there is still a lot of work to be done on Tinian but this is the foundation for Tinian to basically keep on in its effort to attract more investors…” she said.