Moving the NMI economic engine anew

Last month, Pacific Telecom Inc. celebrated its first full year in the Commonwealth. It was a quiet affair, with very little fanfare. And although the poor state of the CNMI economy has not yet improved, PTI remains very committed to the people of the CNMI and their welfare. In good times and in bad, PTI has every intention of staying in the Commonwealth and actively participating in its growth and development.

PTI believes very strongly in the potential of the Commonwealth to be a great place to live in; not just from an economic point of view, but also from the standpoint of the quality of life here on the islands. The CNMI has all the basic ingredients needed to again resume its place as a major tourist destination: our good weather, the beauty of the islands, the friendliness of our people, our rich history and culture, our political stability under the U.S. flag, our excellent geographical location close to Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, and so forth.

All we need to do now is to plan properly, adopt realistic goals and objectives, and follow up and execute each of the items needed to once again revive our economy. It involves a lot of hard work but that’s the only way to do it. As we know, the visitor industry is a very competitive industry and we are competing with major visitor destinations such as Hawaii, Guam next door, Australia, Malaysia, and many other places in the Far East. So we have our work cut out for us, as they say. But work, we must. The days when we take things for granted are no longer here.

PTI must also look ahead, now that its past difficulties are behind us. The company went through over four long years encountering a number of obstacles and an unusual amount of scrutiny by the government. Many of the conditions and requirements that were imposed on PTI, as the general public is aware, were either unnecessary, irrelevant or simply impediments along the way. Through perseverance and a strong determination not to give up, PTI finally last year received its operating certificate. Instead of dwelling on its past difficulties, however, PTI is aggressively moving forward with its long-term plan to be the key telecommunications company in our region: not just here in the CNMI, but also in Guam and the rest of the Micronesia, and possibly even Hawaii.

PTI would like the people of the CNMI to remember that it is a local, home-grown company. Micronesian Telecommunication Corporation, its key subsidiary, was established here in 1976. This year is MTC’s thirtieth since it was established to take over the government’s telephone system. It has taken roots since that time, when the government-run and operated telephone system and its network of landline cables running throughout the islands were privatized.

Later, in the mid-1980s, MTC obtained a multi-million dollar loan from the Federal Government to upgrade and modernize the CNMI telecom system. One of the major benefits to the people of the CNMI that came out of this multi-million dollar project was the underground burial of the telecom landline cables. Now, even during the height of a storm or typhoon, the people of the CNMI could use the telephone and call up a friend or a relative on-island, the U.S. mainland, Hawaii or anywhere else in the world.

One of the things that still hinders the CNMI from moving forward and improving its economy is the passive attitude that we frequently have toward businesses and investors. We do not really go out of our way to actively solicit investors to come and invest in the CNMI. We do not try our best to make sure that we retain those investors that have made the CNMI their home. Sadly, we take existing investors for granted so many times; and when they leave we ask ourselves: What happened, what did we do wrong? By then it’s too late to do anything about it. This is the predicament that we have found ourselves in, and it needs to be corrected immediately if our economy is going to move forward.

The CNMI needs to be more business-friendly, not just in words but it deeds particularly. It must, as the current saying puts it, “walk the talk.” The economic-boom years of the ‘90s are no longer here, and the days of belt-tightening have been here for several years now. What we are going through now has been a very sobering experience for everyone. The dramatic decline in revenue for both the government and the private sector has been unprecedented in the history of the CNMI. But we must learn from this very difficult and trying experience, and from it acquire the wisdom to learn from our mistakes, so that we will not repeat them again.

We have learned, for example, that the government and business need to join hands and work together as partners to improve the economy. We have learned that we cannot take things for granted in economic matters, especially if the industries that we have, in turn, rely heavily on the economy of other nations. We have learned that we can make things happen only through hard work and perseverance. We have learned that, not matter how difficult it is to do so, we must live within our means. Finally, we should begin to learn to use effectively the resources that we have in order to improve the Commonwealth. These are our limited human resources, our scarce natural resources, our delicate environment, and the need to always maintain our good name and reputation as a good place to invest and to do business. If we do all of these things, PTI believes that something positive would begin to take place in the CNMI, and our economic engine would once again begin to move.

As an example of practicing what it preaches, PTI recently joined forces with Sumitomo Corporation, one of the largest and most established companies in Japan and the world. Both PTI and Sumitomo are bullish on the Commonwealth, its economic potential and its strong potential to emulate Hawaii as a major visitor destination in this part of the Pacific. What we need to do now is to make this economic potential a reality, by having several more companies like Sumitomo set up shop here in the CNMI. This is not a dream, but a vision of what the CNMI could be. It could definitely be done, but we need to work hard to achieve this vision. We need to improve the product we are selling, namely the CNMI itself. We need to make the CNMI—as a product to sell—a unique, and high-quality product; one that would entice visitors from other places to come to the CNMI and enjoy our islands, invest in it, or do both. The key to achieving this vision, as they say, lies in our hands.

PTI urges the people of the Commonwealth to join hands and work cooperatively, so that we could move forward. Let us work hard to make things happen so that we could see our economy engine moving once again.