IPI, groups tie up for indigenous expo
The stage at the Indigenous Cultural Expo was set by up Imperial Pacific International LLC’s Corporate Social Responsibility crew. (Contributed Photo)
Imperial Pacific International LLC’s partnership with the several key agencies and organization led to the successful staging of the first Indigenous Cultural Expo.
Held at the Guma Sakman on Oct. 9 in celebration of the CNMI Cultural Day, Imperial Pacific’s Corporate Social Responsibility spearheaded the committee meetings, together with the Office of Indigenous Affairs, Carolinian Affairs Office, Public School System, Commonwealth Women’s Association, Women’s Affairs Office and the Lady Diann Torres Foundation.
IPI’s Corporate Social Responsibility team also took the lead with the planning and logistics, donations, advertising, promotion and manpower support. (PR)
How much does it cost our casino to do these PR campaigns? They have their “social responsibility team”, which is a group of employees who are paid to go out in our community to paint, pick up trash, etc. I’ve seen them painting at the library decked out in their matching t-shirts. How much is our casino paying for this since day one? 100,000$? $200,000? How about 1,000,000?
How much would it cost our casino if it paid gaming revenue tax? Did you know that Saipan is the only place in the world where a casino can operate without paying ANY gaming revenue tax? In Macau it is 39%. Desperately poor and dirty Kenya has raised it’s gaming revenue tax to 30%. Even Cambodia has a 5% gaming revenue tax. The other difference between Saipan and every other place, is that only on Saipan do we have a casino which has ZERO competition.
If our casino paid a gaming revenue tax of 5%, equal to that in Cambodia, we’d have an extra 150 million dollars today, for our power plant, hospital, and our schools. Instead we have the social responsibility team, which should more accurately be called the “please don’t tax us team.”