Northern Marianas
Gov. Juan Babauta
Turning the Economy Around
A Pacific Magazine interview by Frank Whitman
Pacific Magazine: You came into office a year and a half ago in a weak economy. Did the economy become the priority for your administration?
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Governor Juan Babauta: This is not an economic issue of the CNMI, this is a worldwide economic issue that impacts the CNMI. We are very dependent on the economy of Japan in terms of the tourism industry and investment opportunities and Japan's economy is not getting any better. We're fortunate to receive in excess of $70 million in grants and programs from the federal government. That is a great injection into the economy.
I would like to see this economy focus more on providing meaningful employment for the locals-meaning U.S. citizens who live here-and phasing out non-resident workers. Over the course of 15 or 20 years we've created an economy in which cash capital flows out of the CNMI. We want to reverse that.
PM: Doing away with the non-resident workers sounds like getting away from the garment factories.
JB: I'm not getting away from anything whether it's garment factories or the construction industry or the tourism industry. I want to get away from the economy in which capital flows out of the CNMI.
PM: Could you talk about the steps you've taken to implement your vision?
JB: We've made education a priority. Even during the height of our tough financial situation we did not cut back on the budget for education. In fact we cut everybody-including the Legislature and the judiciary-except for the public school system. This year we are increasing the budget for the public school system.
Also, we've tightened expenditures. We've issued cost cutting measures. Our goal is to reduce the size of the government.
PM: What about the garment industry and the minimum wage?
JB: For the first time the garment industry here in the CNMI is facing a more level playing field. They have been here for 15 or 20 or 30 years and everything has been to their advantage-duty free, quota free. So they have been on the advantaged side for many years. They just need to treat the workers right and pay them accordingly.
They've always feared that raising the minimum wage is the challenge to them. We need to raise the wages for the people of the CNMI, that's our goal, not just the workers in the garment industry. We want to raise their wages because right now $3.05 is not a living wage.
PM: What are the bright spots; what's promising?
JB: What is very promising is my vision of making education one of our industries. One of the first steps would be to work with the Northern Marianas College. We are looking at expanding the college; at purchasing the La Fiesta Mall and turning that into a campus; bringing in students from all over the world to study here. The focus is teaching English as Second Language to the world. It will be our new version of tourism.
