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Camacho appointed to head Commerce
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Posted on Aug 30 2005
Gov. Juan N. Babauta has appointed Commerce deputy secretary Daniel L. Camacho as the acting Commerce secretary, replacing former Commerce chief Andrew Salas who is seeking a senatorial seat in this year’s general elections.
Camacho, who has been with the department since 1999, was designated deputy secretary last January.
Before this, he worked as the agency’s business adviser and economic development officer.
Camacho began his government work several years ago as clerk of court in Superior Court.
He taught algebra at Marianas High School and later worked as personnel specialist for the Public School System and Department of Public Health.
Camacho said yesterday that he remains optimistic about the overall prospects of the local economy amid the current crises affecting the garment industry as well as the tourism industry in view of the pullout of Japan Airlines in October.
“I’m optimistic. We can only get better. These are temporary setbacks, but we can recover,” he said.
He said local officials are working closely with Washington D.C. for needed legislative action to help the local garment industry compete globally. As for JAL, he said that there may be other airlines such as All Nippon Airways that might come in.
“We just have to do what we have to do. I don’t have a crystal ball to see what would happen next year but we just need to get moving,” he said.
Further, he said the government needs to go out to invite more investors.
He said a newly established Foreign Assistance Division within the department is designed mainly to cater to interested foreign investors.
“Investors don’t have to go through the maze of immigration, licensing requirements and the like. We’ll have people here attending to them,” he said.
Camacho said, though, that the new office lacks funding. “So we try to do things within our means.” He said it would need some $300,000 to operate.
The department receives over $2 million appropriation a year.
