Gov. Ralph DLG Torres considers vital the U.S. Government Accountability Office\u2019s Public Debt Outlook report on the U.S. territories.<\/p>\n
In an Aug. 16, 2017 letter for comments from the Commonwealth government, Torres said the findings of the report were \u201cvital to showcasing the ongoing progress that the CNMI has made toward its public debts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres added that though the economy was doing well, there is still a \u201cvast need for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Released last Tuesday evening, the GAO report noted that though the CNMI economy of fiscal year 2015 was in much better shape compared to fiscal year 2005, its reliance in foreign labor\u2014set to end at Dec. 31, 2019\u2014could impede the Commonwealth\u2019s ability to repay its debts.<\/p>\n
GAO was referring to the end of the CW-1 program, officially known as the CNMI Transitional Worker program that has been in place since 2009. The program\u2019s first deadline was set at 2014, but was extended to this coming 2019. As of publication, U.S. Congress has yet to allow extensions for the CW-1 program, however Torres and Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP) both noted that an extension proposal is in the works.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 The Commonwealth requests for the U.S. Congress\u2019 serious consideration regarding the transition deadline and the CNMI\u2019s continued economic reliance on foreign labor,\u201d wrote Torres.<\/p>\n
GAO also noted in their report that CNMI public debt has plunged 42.5 percent from the period of fiscal year 2005 at $251.7 million to fiscal year 2015 at $144.7 million.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 The CNMI aspires to sustain its economic viability outside of external debt. The \u2026 report gives merit to the CNMI\u2019s steady increase in revenue after 2011 following the growth of the tourism industry,\u201d said Torres, further adding that the report further supported a boost in CNMI tourism following the introduction of the CNMI gaming industry. <\/p>\n
According to the GAO report, the CNMI has seen a Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, increase for three consecutive years since 2013. The report also noted that the GDP to debt ratio of the CNMI was at a low 16 percent for fiscal year 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres considers vital the U.S. Government Accountability Office\u2019s Public Debt Outlook report…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[26,11016,2514,18584],"class_list":["post-261746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-cnmi","tag-gao","tag-gdp","tag-public-debt-outlook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}