Closure of another major business

At Issue: More tourist related businesses are either closing down or downsizing as a result of a drop in business.

Our View: This indicator isn’t a healthy one for the CNMI in that it will translate into less revenue generation and jobs.

From one end of the Marianas Archipelago to the other, we see businessmen downsizing operations or the closure of more tourist related businesses.

A major travel agency with a parent company in Japan closed shop last year. A major tour agent dropped the Managaha tour as a result of a drop in the number of tourists descending on Saipan.

The domino effect of such business closures included shops at La Fiesta and elsewhere in the Garapan business center. In the process, Continental Airlines followed suit by cutting down direct flights out of Japan as load factor dropped in recent years.

Despite the drop in revenue generation, coupled with the pleadings of the private sector for positive changes in policy, politicians seem blind, if not, oblivious to highly visible negative economic indicators (business closures of more than 2,000) in order to muddle through these difficult period. There’s more foot dragging by the inept few who have done nothing over the last several years to mitigate the plunge in revenue generation.

This obvious neglect is destined to worsen at year’s end when some of the bigger ones either downsize business operations substantially or close shop altogether. It means less revenue for public services and government jobs. It means we’re headed into the complete reverse of the good times of the late eighties. It means less jobs for everybody, including those who graduated from high school this year.

To top it all off, policy makers (in recent years) did nothing but promote these islands as the bastion of instability via the approval of protectionist laws. The ripple effects of such message, coupled with the natural assault of the Asian flu isn’t getting us anywhere but toy with the notion of a total economic meltdown. Our insensitivity to our productive business partners right here at home would definitely play into the further demise of these islands as an excellent investment venue.

Perhaps this is just as good a time for realistic assessment of where do we go from here amidst fainted tidings of an economic recovery in the Land of the Rising Sun. Yes, the Japanese economy is improving, but a solid recovery is still very elusive. This reality is what local politicians must realistically come full square with. Recovery in this archipelago is far removed from positive tidings of shifts for the better northeast of these isles. Si Yuus Maase`!