MVA not giving up on China

The Marianas Visitors Authority is trying to work out with the Department of Labor and Immigration the possibility of lifting the restriction on the entry of some foreign nationals to the CNMI.

According to Dave M. Sablan, MVA board chairman, he has not given up on the plan to entice visitors from the Republic of China to come to the CNMI specifically those who have already acquired a U.S. visa.

Sablan said he believes the safety measures recommended by MVA are enough to make sure that visiting Chinese will not become illegal aliens. “I understand their fears but that should not stop us from tapping a huge market,” he said.

Immigration officials have so far not acted on the proposed plan as Washington has been pushing to strip the Northern Marianas of its immigration and wage-setting powers, accusing the island government of failure to control the influx of workers, address labor woes and raise minimum wage — long standing problems straining the
CNMI-U.S. ties.

MVA has been trying to tap alternative markets including China and Taiwan as a result of Asia’s financial crisis which has resulted in a downturn in arrivals from Japan and Korea.

To ensure that the Chinese tourists would leave the CNMI after their brief stay, Sablan has drawn up some steps to be followed to address such concern.

The authorized travel agencies in China will send the background information of the Chinese tourist who will be coming to the CNMI. This will be checked by DOLI before they are given the required clearance.

A local tour agency acceptable to the Chinese travel agents will collect the travel documents of the tourists and see to it that they will leave the scheduled date of departure. The local counterpart of the Chinese travel agencies will be required to post a bond of $250,000.

So far, there has been no progress on MVA’s plan to tap the huge Chinese market to come to the CNMI after DOLI suspended indefinitely the issuance of entry permits to citizens of PROC due to refusal of Chinese officials to cooperate in accepting the return of its nationals deported from the Commonwealth.

However, Sablan believes that non-resident workers from China should be treated differently from the tourists since a separate procedure would be used for their entry to the CNMI. (LFR)