Left hand, say hello to right hand
IN May 2025, the late Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said he had tasked the Office of Planning and Development to push a federally funded CNMI economic recovery study. The goal was to provide “a comprehensive strategy to guide the CNMI toward long-term economic recovery, resilience, and growth.” The report was titled “Marianas Economic Roadmap,” and according to Governor Palacios, his administration had “begun acting on several of the recommendations….”
These include upholding the mandate given to the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority or CEDA to be, among other things, “responsible for actively promoting the CNMI as a location for private investment.”
Recently, however, the new governor signed Public Law 24-06, which establishes “the Office of Foreign Corporation Liaison inside the Department of Commerce” to “enhance foreign and domestic investments and streamline processes to promote the CNMI as a trade and investment hub.” As the Saipan Chamber of Commerce has pointed out, CEDA already exists to handle investment and development. Hence, the creation of a similar office could result in “confusion, inefficiencies, and unnecessary overlap….” Which, in a nutshell, is the story of CNMI government bureaucracy.
The Chamber, in any case, “believes that circumvention of CEDA’s role may create more obstacles than solutions for economic development.” The Chamber is right.
Incidentally, the 344-page Marianas Economic Roadmap acknowledged that it is merely the latest in a long list of CNMI economic plans. The Roadmap’s authors — a team of economists and other experts — reviewed all of the previous “thoughtful and detailed plans” and found “a critical disconnect or lack of follow-through between CNMI’s economic planning on one hand, and actual economic development on the other….”
Oh well. Maybe there are more federal grants out there for yet another report.
Economic illiteracy is a luxury no government can afford
JUST in case anyone running for office next year hasn’t received the memo yet: not a single government program or service that benefits the (voting) public can exist without adequate funding — which, in turn, requires a thriving economy.
And yes, federal funds don’t come from magic trees; they are generated by the world’s largest economy (currently valued at $30.507 trillion).
Sadly, among elected officials and other politicians, those who treat the economy as an afterthought also believe that the benefits of economic growth can be taken for granted. No.
Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio, who presided over a booming economy, said he “had to stop the medical referral program because we didn’t have the money. Now we have it. This is the thing. I just have to tell the people: Look, if you want me to provide you the services that you expect from the government, then you’d better favor economic development.”
That’s all there is to it.
