Asunton Koñgresso

Lack of resolve nets lost opportunities

House Floor Leader Oscar Babauta laments losses in economic opportunities triggered what he calls the “triad”: Impact of the Asian Crisis, a destruction of the NMI’s image as a health investment venue triggered by a federal takeover proposal, fueled by protectionist laws that have wreak havoc on what’s left of the local economy.

“The least that we could have done is provide meaningful stimulus packages for struggling ‘on-island’ investors,” he said. “Indecisiveness in this area has contributed to the closure of more than 2000 tourist-related businesses the net result being revenue generation loss forever”, Babauta said.

“The issue of federalization is a common topic among current and prospective investors who are leery of investing capital for business expansion or fresh infusion of investments,” he related. “As though this isn’t enough, we have allowed our tunnel visions to see approval of anti-private sector laws that further aggravated serious decline in revenues”.

“I hope that we have learned from our inadequacies and lack of local resolve to aggressively provide positive private sector expansion and lasting investments,” Babauta said. “When one falls, it doesn’t mean he can get up and when he or she gets up, there’s a guarantee that he can walk,” he said, adding, “this is where the local economy is today which isn’t conducive to encouraging business expansion and future lasting investments”.

“We have been too busy posturing and grandstanding as to fail to pay heed to the ultimate effects of our failure to lay-out the necessary infrastructure for current and future investments,” he said. “But I am optimistic that through the current leadership that would sufficient room to clear the way for positively stable policies on investments”, he related. “We have wasted time bickering among ourselves with platitudes that have done nothing but watch helplessly as the last major industry begins to see contraction in its annual revenue generation and contribution”.

“This is a dire situation that all concerns must assess forthrightly,” he said. “The measures recently introduced would eventually reset investments in the NMI, but it will take about two to three years before we can begin seeing tangible results”, Babauta said.

Child slavery and guest workers

Representative Norman Palacios last week submitted for the journal an article from the San Francisco Examiner about child slavery in the US mainland. He said this problem is far more egregious than all the perceived wrong on flesh trade in the NMI.

He said the article goes to show that the issue on sex slavery even involves the importation of young children from third world countries to serve the sexual needs of their masters. “It’s really astonishing how proponents of a federal takeover can honestly hurl accusations while neglecting the so-called ‘House Glass Syndrome”.

Palacios said that it’s proponents’ rights to level accusations of perceived abuse of workers in the NMI, but that they (detractors) better make sure that they have “brushed their teeth before accusing others of bad mouth odor”.

The Tinian representative who heads the House Standing Committee on Federal Relations also submitted news items of a recent warning by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan of the need to increase the annual quota on skilled foreign workers from 65,000 to 195,000.

Said he: “We are told one thing about foreign workers, yet the very credible federal government money man warned that unless the quota is raised, the continuing economic expansion in the US would overheat”. He said that a statement coming from a gentleman who has seen US Senate bipartisan confirmation says a lot about all the wrong notions about foreign workers. “I suppose it’s the usual dosage of ‘don’t watch what we do, just do what we tell you to do’,” he said.