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CDA reviews fishing group’s application
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Posted on Oct 14 2005
The Commonwealth Development Authority is now reviewing the loan guarantee application of a Seattle-based company that seeks to pursue a commercial fishing venture in the CNMI.
“We had an initial meeting. We’re now reviewing their application for a bank loan guarantee,” said CDA board chair Tom Glenn Manglona yesterday.
He said there is a concern with the application because the company, Lady Kimberly, wants to use the guarantee from CDA in accessing funds from a bank in Seattle.
Quitugua said that CNMI rules and regulations only limit bank guarantees to local banks.
“We can issue a bank guarantee but it would have to be in the local bank. CDA does not engage in U.S. mainland banks. So we really have to look at the policies,” he said.
Earlier, the Department of Commerce said that Lady Kimberly is seeking a loan guarantee for 30 percent, or about $600,000, of its total investment in the fishing business. The business venture is said to cost over $2 million. It involves long-line fishing and fish processing and marketing.
The proposal also calls for a 30-percent equity ownership from the local fishing association in the CNMI.
The company would use two commercial fishing vessels and set up a processing plant on Saipan for export.
Quitugua said the project “looks very promising.”
Commerce economic development officer Glenn Manglona earlier said that the local fishing association would own up to 30 percent of the equity.
Further, he said that the business would not compete with the local fishers since it would fish very far from the usual fishing locations.
The Commerce Department said commercial fishing is an alternative industry for the CNMI.
Manglona said, “We welcome this type of operations because we haven’t tapped the vast ocean to our economic benefit.”
Representatives from Lady Kimberly met with Commerce and CDA officials last week on Saipan.
