{"id":269366,"date":"2018-02-05T06:06:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T20:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=269366"},"modified":"2018-02-05T06:06:47","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T20:06:47","slug":"guam-nmi-leaders-build-foundation-historic-un-marianas-policy-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/guam-nmi-leaders-build-foundation-historic-un-marianas-policy-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Guam, NMI leaders build foundation for an historic \u2018Un Marianas\u2019 policy agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-269366 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/guam-nmi-leaders-build-foundation-historic-un-marianas-policy-agenda\/un-marianas-pix1\/'>Un-Marianas-pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-269368'>\n\t\t\t\tGov. Ralph DLG Torres, second left, hands a gift to Guam Gov. Eddie B. Calvo, second right, during the first day of the CNMI-Guam Marianas work group inaugural meeting last Thursday. (Erwin Encinares)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/guam-nmi-leaders-build-foundation-historic-un-marianas-policy-agenda\/un-marianas-pix2\/'>Un-Marianas-pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-269369'>\n\t\t\t\tAgency representatives came together for the inaugural Marianas Working Group business meeting starting last Thursday. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>\u2018This historic agreement sets into motion many things that we may achieve together for Guam and the CNMI\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo, CNMI Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, and agency representatives came together for the inaugural Marianas Working Group business meeting starting last Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The two-day meeting was designed to identify matters affecting both Guam and the CNMI. The working group further aims to develop policy solutions that will mutually benefit both jurisdictions.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately 150 officials from Guam and the CNMI convened in working groups to share data, emerging trends, challenges, best practices, and opportunities for collaborating on topics spanning seven categories: labor and education; commerce and ports; homeland security and public safety; health and food security; finance and taxation; land, environment and veteran\u2019s affairs; as well as infrastructure, utilities and telecommunications. <\/p>\n<p>Culture and language was discussed within each of the respective working groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s so much potential for the Marianas. But we have to go thousands and thousands of miles away to try to fix the problems that we didn\u2019t create. Today, this meeting is about our people coming together to address these issues, and create opportunities for the Northern Marianas and Guam,\u201d said Calvo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe come together today to don our thinking caps, let flow our creative thinking juices; and to chart our canoe towards a closer, stronger, and more inseparable un Marianas, un kurason, un sensin, un h\u00e5ga\u2019, un guinaiya, un guinifi for our future generation,\u201d said John Oliver DLR \u201cBolis\u201d Gonzales, chief of staff of Lt. Gov. Victor B. Hocog, and the event\u2019s emcee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis working group reaffirms the shared commitment by both Gov. Torres and Gov. Calvo for the Marianas to come together in organic policy discussions that will lead to long-term benefits. Collective problems require collective solutions and leaning on this concept of inafa\u2019maolek will help the CNMI and Guam achieve this goal,\u201d said press secretary Kevin Bautista.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now we are in agreement that Guam and the CNMI face a shortage of skilled laborers to meet current demands. The irony is that this is due to no fault of our own. However, I am confident that together we will address and solve this labor shortage crisis,\u201d Torres added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth jurisdictions are natural partners. It is time to build up our Marianas together,\u201d said Guam Sen. Will Castro. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018This historic agreement sets into motion many things that we may achieve together for Guam&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":269368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,1666,6430,19978],"class_list":["post-269366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-guam-gov","tag-kevin-bautista","tag-un-marianas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269366","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}