Joint Region Marianas Commander Adm. Brent DeVore speaks to members of the local business community.
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios delivers his remarks at the Industry Day event hosted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command at Crowne Plaza Resort on Thursday.
OVER 100 representatives of different businesses in the CNMI participated in the Industry Day event hosted by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command at Crowne Plaza Resort on Thursday.
NAVFAC conducted the same event on Tinian on Wednesday.
In his remarks, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said NAVFAC is “here to help us get our business community up and running,” and how they can participate in the projects and initiatives of the Department of Defense in the region.
“This is very critical,” he said, something that “should have been done five years ago.”
“Now we are trying to play catch-up here,” he said adding that he sincerely hopes that NAVFAC and DoD officials will engage the business community and local government agencies “because this is really a great initiative in the Pacific.”
According to Palacios, “We are a Defense community. Whether or not we acknowledge that, we are a Defense community, especially in this part of the world.”
He asked the business community to “do their part.”
Joint Region Marianas Commander Adm. Brent DeVore, for his part, said, “It is a different form of bravery to craft a business, to see a need, to lead other people, to take their well-being in your hand.”
He said there are “a lot of projects going on.” He encouraged entrepreneurs “to think beyond … the first project.” Because at some point, projects will move on, and there are going to be more opportunities, he added.
“This opportunity today, is the first of what should be several or many, and continuous,” he said.
According to DeVore, “We wake up every morning with our primary goal to prevent war — that conflict will never come ever again in this part of the world. This has already been ravaged before. … So every day we wake up and say, ‘How do we never let that happen again?’ ”
He added, “Sometimes it takes a lot of money to prevent that from happening ever again. And that’s a little bit of what you see, all of these projects … to ensure there is confidence among the entire international community that we are well postured to prevent that from ever happening again.”
“So that is the key role of all we are doing, of all these investments to ensure we are deterring the opportunity for war,” DeVore said.
