Free Trade Zone Measure

Perhaps out of the apparent urgency to explore economic substitutes for the NMI, politicians and bureaucrats have rallied behind the Free Trade Zone proposal in hopes that it would entice more investments into the Marianas Archipelago.

However, common sense tells us that if we can’t take care of current investors, how do we expect to secure the trust and confidence of prospective investors envisioned under the FTZ? Have we taken specific measures to assist them muddle through or did we just ignore their tiny voices because it’s too difficult a task?

Furthermore, there’s the ruinous effects of instability triggered by both external and internal policies, i.e., the persistent agenda to for a federal takeover fueled by protectionist policies from within. Yet we trumpet a measure to lure more investments, a measure that must have become the laughing stock of prospective investors who have decided to head elsewhere.

Indeed, we’ve heard politicians speak of luring hi-tech industries to the NMI that pays better salaries and greater returns over the long haul. This view is pure wishful thinking for obvious reasons: The NMI doesn’t have the resolve to instill stability in its policies nor is it equipped with the requisites, i.e., infrastructure to lure hi-tech industries to the islands.

While we dilly-dally with the FTZ, American executives were recently in the Philippines on a trade mission and are pleased with the commitment of the Philippines to liberalize investment policies. The Philippines has a huge FTZ at Subic Bay and other areas, therefore, the infrastructure to handle industrial development. The NMI has yet to hammer out its FTZ while the train leaves the station, so to speak.

Hi-tech industries require more than just the figment of our provincial imagination. It’s an involved process that takes years to implement and refine. And we need not look beyond the region to see if our dreamed hi-tech industry would be capable of competing or even supplementing the work of hi-tech industries in Japan,
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, among other places. We’ve never invested in education seriously focusing on science, math and technology. This inadequacy alone is sufficient to turn this into another siesta issue.

And even before we lift a finger on the FTZ, there are two things that we need to realistically remember: 1). Let’s not venture into economic alternatives that would die gathering dust on shelves. 2). Let’s stick with what works or on sustainable economic programs that can eventually be refined and strengthened down the stretch. It’s taking care of fish in boat rather than the school of tuna that is still out in the open ocean.