Nervous discussion about recovery

In various quarters here, officials were beaming as they discuss that the Government of Japan has turned the corner and is on its way to economic recovery. That tiding, riddled with a lot of ifs, ands and in-betweens, was seemingly an occasion to celebrate with smiles from ear to ear.

However, even if this sketchy tidings were true, the ripple effects of such recovery takes time before it benefits the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Reason? Japanese are frugal people and the first natural order of business would be replenishment of family savings spent during the peak of the crisis.

This sense of frugality was most visible in the past two years when Japanese family vacations were taken in domestic destinations right in the heart of Japan. The tourists who came by trickles into the NMI were those whose vacations were paid for by their companies (corporate perks) well in advance. Otherwise, most have opted to forego family vacations in favor of domestic destinations and not when their houses are on fire, so to speak.

If anything, the regional contagion ought to teach the NMI a lesson: It no longer can afford putting all its eggs in a single basket nor can it rest on its laurels as to perpetually place detrimental reliance in an industry whose fickleness has seen the closure of 1,080-plus tourist related businesses when this industry headed south. This fatal economic contraction should and must be the daily agenda of policymakers. In other words, there’s an obvious need to rechart the economic future of these isles and you’re at the helm to make positive difference.

This involves planning for eventualities beyond the years. However planning isn’t our forte, there’s no more room for this well greased sense of mañana. We have royally victimized ourselves by our old mentality of the “airplane syndrome”–that in bad times, a plane would fly the blue skies of paradise dropping goodies from way yonder. And let us not engage in the reconfirmation of this syndrome by building a bamboo airplane in hopes that it will fly and drop goodies from the skies. This is wishful thinking and it is for this reason that all concerns need to get their acts together in planning the economic future of these isles.

The seemingly hopeless though “feel good” measure on free trade zone isn’t the answer either. It lacks thorough analysis where the end result could easily turn into a pile of frustration where the only industry that would emerge is the “mining industry” of more speeches and misses rather than simple hits because we haven’t in fact done our homework thoroughly. Economic recovery? Maybe. But it’s good to maintain a sense of guarded optimism as we watch substantial reduction in revenue generation on a steady basis. We need every iota of it given our decision to ride the tide of complacency.