Rota Mayor Melchor A. Mendiola told Variety, “We are going to start necessary legworks in October.”
Mendiola said they have received a positive response from the private institutions that will come in and provide financial support that the Rota East Harbor project needs.
Initially, the project will work on a $25 million budget. “This is an initial commitment and anything else we have to see,” he said.
Asked on funding sources, the mayor revealed that part of that will come from loans and the rest from grants.
With Rota underserved and undeveloped, he said they would tap into federal grants and loans like those coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He said it’s estimated that they can tap about $6 million in grants and about $9 million in loans.
He also told Variety that a non-profit group called Rota Economic Development Corp., composed of non-compensated board members, will take the lead in the project.
“They are doing this so they could become part of the answer to the economic development of our community,” he said.
So far, the project he said has a sketch of what they envision the project to be.
However, they will be issuing a request for proposals for A&E design once financing sources have been secured.
The mayor said he would like the infrastructure development of Rota to be mandatory as it will open doors for economic opportunities.
There are investors who are looking to ply this route; however, they are dismayed, the mayor said.
He said the size of the vessels they would like to bring in cannot fit in the harbor.
Despite the economic downturn, Mendiola said he feels that this is the best time to invest when the economy is down.
He also said he is coordinating with other groups, including farmers, to ensure that there will be activities in the proposed port.
What necessitates the commencement of the East Harbor project, he said, is the interest he is getting from some investors.
“There is a possibility that Rota can also be utilized as a transshipment center. Investor said Saipan is too far from their route,” he said.
Mendiola declined to identify the investor.
But he welcomed the prospects for developing Rota’s resources.
He lamented too the fact that although there is a water bottling company on Rota, it suffers in the export market due to high shipping cost.
