Malcolm McPhee, whose firm was commissioned by the Fitial administration to conduct an economic study on the CNMI, said the federal government should “do more” in helping the commonwealth and other insular areas.
But Rep. Ray Yumul, R-Saipan, who listened to McPhee’s presentation at the multi-purpose center, said he would like to see more data about the local unemployment rate, poverty threshold and other economic statistics.
“I was expecting more insights,” he said. “Like, how did they come up with their conclusion if they don’t have certain specific data.”
Malcolm D. McPhee & Associates & Dick Conway, in a report, said the CNMI is now facing a “serious economic depression, which shows no sign of abating or recovering even in the distant future.”
It added, “This depression is due to the lifting of quotas on garment exports to the U.S. which rendered the CNMI’s largest employer, the garment industry, unfeasible.”
The report said the federalization of the islands’ immigration system next year will result in a gloomier economic picture for the CNMI.
“The CNMI could revert in large measure to the subsistence economy it was before the Covenant. Furthermore, after its stunning economic success, the CNMI is now on a path to become one of the lowest standard of living and most federal dependent territories in the U.S. system,” the report stated.
It added, “The immigration measure could prove troublesome for the visitor industry, now the CNMI’s only driving force in the economy, because about 70 percent of its workers are non-U.S. citizens. The outlook for the CNMI economy is bleak. The last garment factory is expected to close its doors in 2009. After one or two good years, the visitor industry will have to begin grappling with a declining workforce….”
The McPhee report was submitted as one of the CNMI government’s exhibits in the lawsuit filed by the governor in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the federalization law.
