Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) has introduced House Bill 22-70, or the Investment Incentive Act of 2021, which seeks to promote economic development in the Commonwealth and increase competitiveness of the Commonwealth for private sector investment. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe provision of tax incentives is a common tool for economic development throughout the United States and the world and competition for investments is greatly supplemented by efforts of these jurisdictions to implement economic development plans through the allocation of tax incentives,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Demapan believes that the 21-year-old Investment Incentive Act of 2000 served the purpose of its time in providing incentives for the development of new investment in the CNMI. He believes, though, that the structure of the program has not kept pace with an evolving competitive market for business investments. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this juncture, it\u2019s important to encourage the development of additional business investments and increased economic diversification of the Commonwealth economy by offering investors tax incentives to build, expand, and operate projects,\u201d said Demapan. \u201cAs global and regional economic landscapes change and industries evolve, it is an opportune time for the CNMI to update its portfolio for the challenges of the 21st Century.\u201d <\/p>\n
H.B. 22-70 is a product based on recommendations proposed by the Governor\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers. <\/p>\n
The GCEA agrees with the need to update the qualifying certificate program to keep current with changing dynamics in the competitive market for American investment and to provide greater resources to the CNMI\u2019s development entity (the Commonwealth Development Authority) to compete with competitors across the nation in an effort to provide a more streamlined and targeted effort to use present tools to encourage economic diversification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe changes being proposed will ensure that incentives do not create an uneven playing field among private sector operators,\u201d said Demapan. \u201cFor instance, in the event a number of industries develop in the CNMI within a targeted industry, through both incentives and natural investment, the ability to alter eligibility of that industry would ensure fairness in the economy.\u201d <\/p>\n
The bill also includes the GCEA\u2019s recommendation to grant CDA the authority to delineate Economic Development Zones throughout the Commonwealth that can better target areas or islands in need of specific development in line with the development priorities of the Commonwealth\u2019s municipalities and communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese reforms to the qualifying certificate program are greatly needed to ensure that our economy thrives for generations to come,\u201d added Demapan. \u201cFurther, there will also be opportunities for existing businesses to avail for these incentives for eligible expansion projects, finally leveling the playing field for many of our longstanding locally owned businesses. These businesses have been here for decades, in good times and in bad, so it\u2019s only fair that they be allowed to avail of incentives to further expand their business activities.\u201d (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) has introduced House Bill 22-70, or the Investment Incentive Act…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":331088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[507],"class_list":["post-345445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-qc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345445","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=345445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}