Fitial welcomes ex-justice’s economic summit proposal
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial welcomes retired justice Jose S. Dela Cruz’s call to convene a CNMI economic summit, according to press secretary Charles Reyes Jr. yesterday.
Reyes said Fitial respects Dela Cruz’s opinion and that the idea to hold an economic summit is “perfectly acceptable.”
“ If he [Dela Cruz] wants to sponsor a summit with the members of the Legislature that’s perfectly fine,” Reyes told Saipan Tribune.
The spokesman said the governor supports people’s desire to engage in community discussions.
“We support freedom of speech. We support discussion on the economy. He [Fitial] is not against somebody who wants to call a summit,” Reyes said.
In a recent letter to the editor, Dela Cruz said government and business leaders should rise to the occasion and take charge of the economic predicament that the CNMI is now in by calling for a major economic conference.
“The purpose of such working economic conference is to address and try to correct the CNMI economic downturn that we have been in for several years now,” the retired justice said.
Senate President Pete P. Reyes and House Speaker Arnold Palacios, who expressed support for the idea, are reportedly planning to meet with Dela Cruz to find a way to set up a working group that will formulate some research and finalize a methodology in order to push through with the conference.
