COMMONWEALTH Ports Authority Board Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the newly elected president of the Association of Pacific Ports, said its recent meeting discussed, among other things, the need for increased efficiency and effectiveness of the ports.
“It was a great experience,” she said. “It was a great opportunity to be able to sit down with primary stakeholders with regard to the ports and the key players with the supply chain issue coming together. For me to be able to sit in in a conversation like that and listen to how people were collaborating to address the issue — I think there’s a lot of best practices that we could adopt….”
She added, “I know that there’s been a lot of discussion with regard to [President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better framework] and the different agencies across the federal government that are getting federal funding to improve port infrastructure. I think that there’s an opportunity here to call these different stakeholders, both local and federal, and engage in a conversation about where these different funding streams are coming and how we can now start addressing some of [our] critical infrastructure issues.”
She noted that U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan “did mention that CPA will be getting some funds to improve safety issues at the ports.”
She said CPA has been in communication with the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the allocations of these federal funds.
“The full details as to the allocations of those [funding] and where those [funding] are going to [are] not clear at this time, so we’re waiting for a breakdown of that. I do know that…during the deliberation on the bill, we did submit a letter to the Department of Transportation identifying project priorities for CPA to include the runway, issues with the seaport on both Rota and Tinian, as well as Saipan. So, we’re waiting to hear from the FAA,” King-Hinds said.
During the recent meeting of the Association of Pacific Ports, “I did have the opportunity to meet [U.S. Maritime Administration Mid-Pacific Gateway Region Director Gus Hein]. He will be coming out here in January or February…. I think there’s a lot of interest in seeing how we can develop the capacity [for the] marine highway designation, so we are really excited about that. There’s still a lot that’s still not clear in terms of [funding], so we’re waiting to get some guidance [on] that.”
Kimberlyn King-Hinds
