The Fitial administration is preparing to consolidate the permitting processes of different regulatory agencies, according to Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan.
The administration, he added, is not trying to merge agencies.
According to Demapan, the purpose of the one-stop shop is to make it easier for the investors to obtain their permits and meet other requirements.
The regulatory agencies will remain where they are now. Only their permitting sections will be consolidated.
This, Demapan added, will get rid of the redundancies in government agencies that deal with the business community.
Right now, a person who wants to open even a small business has to go to the Zoning Office, the Department of Public Works, the Division of Environmental Quality the Division of Fish and Wildlife, Coastal Resource Management, the Bureau of Environmental Health and the Division of Revenue and Taxation to secure the necessary permits.
It’s time consuming for investors, Demapan said.
These agencies are in different locations and putting together their permitting process will save investors time and money, he added.
“All the agencies that will be involved in this are going to collaborate to make sure the permitting process is centralized and streamlined,” Demapan said.
The administration wants a more business-friendly process, he added.
He said hopefully in the next two months, the government will have a centralized permitting process in one location.
“We may want to call it one-start-one-stop. It is not necessarily a merger of different agencies,” he added.
The lack of a centralized permitting process was one of the concerns raised by the business community during a conference with the government last week.
Demapan said the one-stop shop will not require the hiring of new government employees and will not result in additional costs.
Speaker Eli D. Cabrera, R-Saipan, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan, said they support the administration’s one-stop shop plan.
Cabrera said businesses right now have to go to a lot of different agencies before they can start their investments.
Basa said the one-stop shop will help bring in more investments.
Sen. Jovita Taimanao, Ind.-Rota, said the one-stop shop is a very important concept that will also help address the government’s lack of personnel.
“It’s very convenient and it will really help our economy,” she added.
