Gov. Juan N. Babauta and visiting Indonesian representatives would sign today a memorandum of understanding memorializing the friendly ties between the Commonwealth and the predominantly Muslim Asian republic.<\/p>\n
Leading the Indonesian delegation is Alex S.W. Retraubun, director for Small Islands Development of Indonesia\u2019s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Retraubun\u2019s jurisdiction encompasses almost all of the 17,500 islands of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learn how the CNMI develops the islands here,\u201d Retraubun said. \u201cWe have so many islands much better than Bali.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retraubun and six other Indonesian delegates visited the CNMI to attend two major conferences involving U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands\u2014the 2004 All Islands Coastal Zone Management sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Pacific Islands Environment Conference sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n
Retraubun said learning from the CNMI experience and those of other Pacific islands would provide useful ideas on how to develop Indonesia\u2019s small islands. The government agency where Retraubun belongs is relatively new in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
USAID Coastal Resources Management project deputy chief of party Stacey A. Tighe, Ph.D, said the Indonesian delegation and Babauta would sign the \u201cMOU of special friendship\u201d today at the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
She said the delegation wants to build a relationship of cooperation with the CNMI on environmental issues, particularly coastal management, and tourism. The delegation was set to meet last night with Marianas Visitors Authority chair David Sablan and other members of the MVA board to discuss about developing a tourism strategy, Tighe added.<\/p>\n
Sablan said the Indonesian group wants to know about the MVA\u2019s functions and how it manages to lure visitors from Japan, Korea and China.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternally, we designate attractive sites and maintain those sites. There are at least 80 sites on Saipan, and about 25 each on Rota and Tinian,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n
Tighe recognized that the CNMI has many selling points to tourists, citing the presence of signages and the use of the English language for communication, as well as the beautiful sceneries and pristine beaches. \u201cYou can go for the view or you can go for the wet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Besides Retraubun and Tighe, the Indonesian delegation includes Tourism professor Bet El Silisna Lagarense, Bureau of Planning and Development director Alexander Johnnes Wowor, Bureau of Planning and Development of Bitung City Theodore Vanny Lumingkewas, Office of Environment Management of Manado City\u2019s Boyke Ferry, and Joudy Ruddy Rizal Sangari, the head of Coastal Resources and Management on Integrated Coastal Resources Management Board of North Sulawesi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Juan N. Babauta and visiting Indonesian representatives would sign today a memorandum of understanding memorializing the friendly ties between the Commonwealth and the predominantly Muslim Asian republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82161","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}