Chamber backs employment summit

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce endorses the government-initiated employment summit on Saipan by end of this month, citing its importance to the business community. See related story on Page 8.

“This is going to be an in-depth discussion of employment issues facing our residents. It’s an in-depth discussion of government employment needs. It’s going to be a very informative, interesting discussion,” said SCC vice president Alex Sablan.

Sablan called on Chamber members to participate in the summit.

The summit, which is spearheaded by Eric Plinske of Northern Marianas College-Small Business Development Center, will be held at Fiesta Resort & Spa on Nov. 30.

Plinske said the summit is co-sponsored by the Workforce Investment Agency.

He said the summit aims to gather business and government leaders to discuss “the CNMI’s critical employment needs so that government counseling, training, education, financial assistance, internship, and placement programs can unify their efforts and maximize resources to develop the necessary resident labor talent to fill said positions.”

Plinske said the summit audience discussion and feedback will be incorporated to create a demand-action plan “that will result in a higher percentage of resident workers employed in the private sector within one year.

The summit, which starts at 8:30am, is open to the public.

The government had recently asked the private sector to find 500 to 1,000 positions that can be occupied by local residents. This can be determined through an audit, which is currently being done by the Office of Public Auditor and the chamber.

SCC’s Sablan said the job audit, which was requested by the Fitial administration, is expected to be completed by next month.

“Our task is to find those categories in the job market that we believe could be held by locals,” he said.

The audit would show what types of jobs are available for the local residents and what jobs have already been penetrated by the locals and the jobs that have abundance of personnel, said chamber president Charles V. Cepeda.

The Fitial administration said it believes that a good number of the jobs currently occupied by nonresident workers could be filled by local workers.

There are some 30,000 nonresident worker permits issued each year.

This move to audit the private sector jobs came as the government tries to trim down its size to save on costs.

Citing lack of finances, the government has implemented a 10-percent wage cut and terminated some personnel this year.

The government employs over 5,000 personnel, which costs about $6 million every two weeks in payroll. [I][B](Liberty Dones)
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