DOI confab to highlight Saipan as transshipment hub

The Commonwealth Ports Authority is participating in this year’s Department of the Interior-sponsored business conference, presenting the potentials of Saipan as a regional transshipment point in Micronesia.

Ports Authority executive director Carlos Salas said in a recent interview that CPA targets, in particular, three Asian countries’ shipments to the U.S. These are China, the Philippines, and South Korea.

He said that Saipan has a big attraction to offer to shippers: a pre-U.S. customs clearance service.

“As a U.S. port, we can reassemble their cargo as a unit. We can do that right here. That way, it would be easier for them and it’s less costly,” Sablan said.

He said his team will present this and other port-related business opportunities in the CNMI during the conference.

Based on DOI’s online update on the conference, ports and shipping opportunities in the islands will be tackled on the first breakout session on the first day of the two-day conference.

The conference will be held at Los Angeles Marriot Downtown on Sept. 23 to 24 this year.

This comes as CPA continues its push for the land designation of certain public lands in Puerto Rico for expansion purposes.

The plan, recently passed at the House of Representatives in the form of a bill, aims to convert the Saipan Port into a regional transshipment point for other Micronesian islands, with the end view of reducing international shipping costs by 15 to 20 percent.

Once enacted, the expansion project would allow handling of 5,000 containers at a time. It is also projected to haul in an average of 1,620 containers on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, DOI’s Office of the Insular Affairs said that the first breakout session will also tackle “Film Industry in the Islands,” an area which the CNMI has been wanting to develop.

Local authorities have revived the Film Office, citing the strategic location of the Northern Marianas as an advantage to international filmmakers.

Authorities said that the CNMI has an even greater advantage than Hawaii and Guam in attracting international filmmakers owing to its immigration and federal wage policies.

Right now, the Northern Marianas College, in partnership with a private company, Pacific Rim Academy, offers a film and audio-visual course in efforts to train and develop a local workforce for the industry.