Government Briefs
Government Briefs
Saipan
The CNMI government is launching an all-out war against business establishments illegally selling pornographic materials and sex toys in Western Garapan, Saipan’s prime tourist area. House Committee on Health and Welfare Rep. Malua Peter says these stores not only put a damper on the moral values of youth but add to an already alarming rate of prostitution.
The CNMI government reported a five-year low in revenues generated from taxes during fiscal year 2000. FY2000 tax collections dropped to $214.1 million, down from the previous year’s $222.9 million. Governor Pedro P. Tenorio’s administration has reduced government operations costs from an annual budget of $268.1 million the year before he took office to $221.6 million last year.
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Pacific
France has called on the U.S. to support the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s global anti-money laundering campaign. The French news agency AFP reported in mid-May that French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius told an OECD meeting that Washington should not "disengage" from the tax haven and money laundering problem. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has objected to the OECD-backed program of pushing "suspect" countries to tighten tax laws, warning that the U.S. will not participate in moves to dictate tax levels to individual states. The OECD-backed Financial Action Task Force has blacklisted 15 nations — including the Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Niue — as "non-cooperative" in the anti-money laundering campaign.
Marshall Islands
The licensing in May of a Hong Kong-based company to begin longline fishing for sharks prompted concern from the Majuro Chamber of Commerce. The Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority has authorized the use up to 20 longliners. They are prohibited from fishing within 12 miles of most inhabited atolls, and within 50 miles of Majuro and Kwajalein. MIMRA officials say the company will take the entire shark, not just the highly prized fins. The Marshalls is to receive $2,000 per month for each vessel fishing, and 5 percent of the landed catch value.
The Marshall Islands is working with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to strengthen anti-money laundering cooperation. A team from the Treasury office was in Majuro in early June. The aim is to get the government’s newly created Finanical Intelligence Unit (FIU) fully functioning, said Marshall Islands banking commissioner Alfred Alfred, Jr. A key goal of the FIU and the banking commission is to implement procedures with local banks to identify and investigate suspect financial transactions. “These are part of our defensive procedures against money laundering,” he said.
American Samoa
The American Samoa Government placed a ban on the importation of bananas in mid-May because of a glut of the locally-grown fruit. Governor Tauese Sunia announced the ban that primarily affects Samoa and Tonga, the territory’s two biggest banana suppliers. Local farmers sell about 10,000 pounds every two weeks to the school lunch program. But with schools out for the summer, there’s a huge over-supply for local markets.
Government-owned Development Bank of American Samoa has added home improvement loans to its program, and the bank is now taking the program to remote villages of the territory. "This is a pilot project by the bank to fulfill the governor's efforts to upgrade the home building program," bank President Vaivao Etelagi said. In late May, officials of the bank started visiting remote villages in the Manu'a Island Group.
Guam
The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) has submitted plans to construct a Guam Mobile Downrange Station on a 1.33 acre site located on property owned by the developers of the massive Leo Palace Resort in the Mannegon Hills area of central Guam. The Guam Mobile Downrange Station will allow tracking and reception of telemetry data, and transmission of flight safety commands during the launch of low altitude sun synchronous orbit satellites and international space station missions. The facility will operate in conjunction with several down range stations in the region. Developers say that an 11-meter diameter parabolic antenna with an optional second smaller antenna will be built alongside a launch vehicle telemetry receiving and flight safety command facility. The tracking station will be manned by a staff of 12 technicians on a “as needed basis” as dictated by NASDA.
