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CEDS ranks proposed projects by priority
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Posted on Jan 29 2009
Several members of the Legislature listened yesterday as members of the CNMI Comprehensive Economic Development Strategic Commission detailed their economic impact ranking system for future CNMI projects.
The presentation was part of the group’s five-year economic development plan. Thirty-three projects in various stages of development costing $500 million were ranked by the economic impact they would have in the CNMI, using factors such as job creation, private investment and public benefit. The final document will be presented to the Economic Development Administration Feb. 19 for a grant.
“We’re trying to get very creative about financing, because we realize our needs are very expensive and there’s a lot of different ways to find them, there’s not only just local and federal CIP funds. There’s a lot of different entities that have grants,” said Lynn Knight, chair of the CEDS and publisher of the Saipan Tribune.
The group found that the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has the most impact economically on the Commonwealth. The Commission recommends that CUC engage in a public-private partnership.
Along with Knight, Commerce Secretary Michael Ada, Arthur Smith, president of Management Analysis, Inc., and Sergio Loya, project manager for MAI, took part in the presentation. The Commission hired MAI to analyze the information for the development plan.
Knight urged the Legislature to pass a resolution supporting the five-year plan.
Meanwhile, officials from Neo Goldwings Paradise met with legislative members in the morning about a planned $300-million casino resort on Tinian.
The project calls for a 1,000-room hotel, casino, observatory, sauna and fitness center, indoor ice-skating rink, outdoor concert hall, amusement park, water park, 36-hole golf link, horse riding ground, yacht basin, hot balloon area, and a Chamorro cultural village, among other things.
Senate President Pete Reyes said the project is very ambitious. He added that public meetings school be scheduled on the proposed resort in the next two weeks.
Neo Goldwings is one of several companies that have expressed interest in putting up casinos and resorts on the island of Tinian.
