Need to reassess policies

With a cumulative deficit of $52 million-plus, coupled by the devastating effects of plummeting revenues, local government needs to reassess policies that have stifled growth and turned away fresh investments destined for these isles.

That government isn’t in the business of turning in a profit at the end of the year to determine whether it can support itself is more the reason to look into its policies forthwith. Given the severity of hardship that families would have to endure as the economy heads deeper south makes it even more vital that leadership steps in today in decisive fashion.

Indeed, we were flabbergasted by all the trappings of the glamour industry shoving aside its fickleness for we were sure we could perpetuate the fiesta attitude like there’s no tomorrow. We found out that the Asian crisis turned this industry into an avalanche that came crashing down smaller tourist-related businesses and shut down more than 1,080 as of last year.

For several years, we engaged in see-saw debate over protectionist policies such as the $100,000 security deposit for new businesses to weed-out smaller ones owned by foreigners. As though this isn’t enough, we imposed that these new businesses must be worth not less than $150,000. We basically slammed the doors on prospective midsize and small businesses. In the process, the new protectionist law trumpeted negative messages to any and all prospective investors. It’s the one law that has shut down any future investments in the NMI not to mention a new theme in instability fanned by the shifting sand in federal policy against these isles.

When the tourism industry came crashing down in all corners, we weren’t sure what to make of it for we definitely have never had an alternative plan for the day that the fickleness of this industry finally arrives. When the apparel industry took over the first fiddle as an income earner, we treated it like a leper with our well greased sense of mañana and menstrual reluctance failing ourselves by our unwillingness or inability to see the larger picture.

It’s no longer this or that industry but the overall economy that has become the central issue in this continuing debate that merits full attention. But we haven’t been able to see it in this fashion. We’ve been too quick finding scapegoats to which we’ve ran out of prospects. Even in one of the world’s largest economies (South Korea), Samsung Economic Research Institute surprised the entire country when it strongly recommended in a 20-page report that the key to “corporate survival lies in maximizing productivity, quality and specialization–hallmarks not of the country’s industrial giants–but of its most successful small firms”.

Somehow, leadership must work with greater vision and appreciation of the contributions of midsize and small businesses for they create both wealth and jobs for these islands. Entrepreneur-friendly policies must be allowed to dictate growth and lasting investments forthwith to grant the NMI the opportunity to rebuild its economy “as we used to know it.”