CNMI-Indonesia to sign MOU on friendship

Gov. Juan N. Babauta and visiting Indonesian representatives would sign today a memorandum of understanding memorializing the friendly ties between the Commonwealth and the predominantly Muslim Asian republic.

Leading the Indonesian delegation is Alex S.W. Retraubun, director for Small Islands Development of Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Retraubun’s jurisdiction encompasses almost all of the 17,500 islands of Indonesia.

“We learn how the CNMI develops the islands here,” Retraubun said. “We have so many islands much better than Bali.”

Retraubun and six other Indonesian delegates visited the CNMI to attend two major conferences involving U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands—the 2004 All Islands Coastal Zone Management sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Pacific Islands Environment Conference sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Retraubun said learning from the CNMI experience and those of other Pacific islands would provide useful ideas on how to develop Indonesia’s small islands. The government agency where Retraubun belongs is relatively new in Indonesia.

USAID Coastal Resources Management project deputy chief of party Stacey A. Tighe, Ph.D, said the Indonesian delegation and Babauta would sign the “MOU of special friendship” today at the Governor’s Office.

She said the delegation wants to build a relationship of cooperation with the CNMI on environmental issues, particularly coastal management, and tourism. The delegation was set to meet last night with Marianas Visitors Authority chair David Sablan and other members of the MVA board to discuss about developing a tourism strategy, Tighe added.

Sablan said the Indonesian group wants to know about the MVA’s functions and how it manages to lure visitors from Japan, Korea and China.

“Internally, we designate attractive sites and maintain those sites. There are at least 80 sites on Saipan, and about 25 each on Rota and Tinian,” Sablan said.

Tighe recognized that the CNMI has many selling points to tourists, citing the presence of signages and the use of the English language for communication, as well as the beautiful sceneries and pristine beaches. “You can go for the view or you can go for the wet,” she said.

Besides Retraubun and Tighe, the Indonesian delegation includes Tourism professor Bet El Silisna Lagarense, Bureau of Planning and Development director Alexander Johnnes Wowor, Bureau of Planning and Development of Bitung City Theodore Vanny Lumingkewas, Office of Environment Management of Manado City’s Boyke Ferry, and Joudy Ruddy Rizal Sangari, the head of Coastal Resources and Management on Integrated Coastal Resources Management Board of North Sulawesi.