Fragility of island economies
The Issue: Most island nations are resource-poor, hardly capable of standing on their own feet.
Our View: When economic giants stumble, we get crushed as economies of scale tumble.
How true that throughout the Pacific area, about the only island nation that has anything of value is the Republic of Nauru. But even with its rich phosphate, it is basically gone after years of excavation.
Other island nations have relied on the riches of the sea for revenue generation. Even this is often the subject of tuna depletion in the Pacific area by unscrupulous distant fishing nations.
The CNMI once had tourism as its number income earner. Since three years ago, however, it has gone steadily south as a direct result of the Asian crisis. There’s good though guarded tidings of the likelihood of a rebound. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that such tidings would descend sooner than later to aid our ailing tourism industry.
About the only sturdy economic sector these days is the apparel industry that has kept fueling the local coffers when nothing else works. Its finished products are the only export items going out of our commercial port. This sector has helped alleviate the cost of imported items, items we consider as basic necessities among families here. Imagine of the apparel sector shuts down. It would be devastating to say the least.
The Asian crisis has demonstrated to us in no uncertain terms what happens to our own economy when Japan’s and tiger countries’ economies tumble–our tourism industry declines dangerously below the 30 percent level. We need not elaborate on this issue. The closure of more than 2000-plus tourist related businesses tells it all.
That our economy is really very fragile makes the more important for leadership to institute measures that demonstrate that we have in fact learned to live in both good and bad times. It is when we’re faced with economic adversity where the test of leadership is critically vital to ensure that our people in the villages aren’t subjected to undue hardship out of neglect. We must learn to live in both good and bad times. Si Yuus Maase`!
