UMDA, UCLA partner to build Technology Center

The United Micronesia Development Association is working with the UCLA Anderson School of Management to create a Technology Center on Saipan that would ultimately bring mainland-based technology companies to the island.

The partnership seeks to capitalize on the unlimited H-1 visa status of the island and a means to develop a new economic engine for the CNMI.

“The purpose of this program is to explore potential avenues to stimulate the CNMI economy by creating more revenues, jobs and opportunities in the Commonwealth,” said UMDA CEO and president Russ Snow.

A team of five students of the UCLA Anderson School of Management who visited the Commonwealth last month completed its initial report in early November and presented their findings to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial.

UMDA has agreed to provide the land for the Technology Center and to help recruit a major technology company from the U.S. mainland, to become a partner of the new center and establish operations on the island.

Part of the project also involves securing tax benefits from the CNMI government for investments in the Technology Center and extending the time period for no limitations on H-1 visa status on Saipan.

“It’s our goal to make Saipan an attractive option for technology companies looking to establish operations in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Filial.

According to Snow, “Local business leaders and the business management team from UCLA Anderson are very excited about the prospect of introducing the CNMI as a safe and secure location for technology companies. Saipan is unique—the island offers great living conditions, low tax rates, and access to an additional H-1 visa-trained workforce within a U.S. protectorate, which is on the doorstep of Asia. We’re hoping that these benefits will attract a major technology company partner and we plan to unveil final plans for development of the Technology Center in mid-2009.”

There are major benefits for a mainland company that establishes an operational presence on Saipan. Saipan will have no limitation on the access to a pool of technically qualified H-1 visa workers from nearby Japan, Korea, India and other Asian countries because Saipan does not fall within the H-1 visa cap, which controls the mainland U.S. employment regulations. In addition, Saipan is a U.S. commonwealth and products developed here are protected by the U.S. copyright laws and the U.S. Judicial System. For Saipan the creation of the Technology Center would offer new opportunities to the local work force and be the first step in the establishment of a knowledge-based economy in the region.

The U.S. Congress passed legislation earlier this year that exempts the CNMI and Guam from immigration law caps on temporary workers through at least 2014. The immediate purpose of this legislation was to ensure that the Department of Defense would be able to find up to 20,000 workers estimated to be required for the planned military buildup in neighboring Guam. But the legislation also opens the door for U.S. technology companies to establish an operational presence in the CNMI, which offers safe, desirable and affordable living conditions to workers (including a federal tax rate that is 50 percent of the rate assessed in the States) and ready access for employers to an H-1 visa work force.

UMDA was founded in 1966 in Saipan and has been involved in a wide range of businesses, including shipping, airlines, cable systems, and resort properties. UMDA’s shareholders include the government or governmental entities of the CNMI, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and thousands of individual Micronesians and their families. In December 2007 UMDA announced the purchase from JAL Group of the Hotel Nikko Saipan, a 313-room luxury hotel in Saipan. [B][I](PRNewswire)[/I][/B]