Acknowledging the vital role of small businesses in the CNMI\u2019s economy, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres encouraged restaurants and other food businesses that are struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic to apply for direct relief through the $28.6-billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund.<\/p>\n
In his response to a request for comment about the program during a radio news briefing on Friday, Torres urged all the affected businesses to avail of it. \u201cWith the way things run [here], the government can\u2019t function without our partners or business partners,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Small Business Administration, which administers the Restaurant Revitalization Fund program, opened the application period last May 3. So far, SBA has already approved more than 16,000 applications for assistance\u2014just one week after opening the application process. See story on Page 5)<\/p>\n
Entities eligible to apply include restaurants, caterers, bars bakeries, and breweries. The online application will remain open to any eligible establishment until all funds are exhausted.<\/p>\n
Torres said that, with everyone struggling across the board, the government is here to assist small businesses in different ways. He noted that, by language and definition, 99% of the businesses in the CNMI are considered small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to say I want to help small businesses. That\u2019s easy. I want to help and I will help,\u201d he said. The issue is how do they help everybody across the board equally and as fairly as they can.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can go down the line on what kind of occupations, what kind of small businesses we will help. At the end of the day, small business is small business, and we need to help everybody across the board. One small business on your left, one small business on the right. In order for us to work as a government, we need both of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Torres also encouraged other entrepreneurs to take a risk and look at what the CNMI needs, whether it\u2019s locally or even globally. \u201cWhat can they produce here that we can send and export? What can we import that will also benefit locally?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Torres assured that he\u2019s always been pro-business because he understands that it\u2019s the business partners that are able to sustain the economy and every opportunity for every individual in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acknowledging the vital role of small businesses in the CNMI\u2019s economy, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":344094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-344075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344075","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}