Garment Firm S Pulling Out?

ananas cVariety^ | Micronesia’s Leading Newspaper Since 1 9 7 2 Ve;: 22 So> 84 ;TT. ·: . Saipan. MP 96950 r· 1993 Mai ¡anas Variety: Friday ■ July 9^ 1993 Ssrvmg CNMI for 20 Years. Garment firms pulling out? IMPLEMENTATION of the most garment factories next yearly 30-cent minimum wage in Factories can’t afford pav hike year, or upon completion of crease starting December 1993 their deliveries to buyers un may trigger the departure of gar clined to be named, said the main He said the garment industry in in the US mainland. der existing contracts. ment producers from Saipan, this reason for choosing Yap and Palau Saipan, whichhas to compete with The factory owner said the Yap and Palau, according to the- was learned yesterday. was low wage rates. The mini Asian producers, could not afford 30-cent additional pay would businessman, do not enjoy duty A factory owner said he was mum wage in Yap is 85 cents per the increase in the minimum wage increase the garment free treatment for exports to the planning to relocate his plants to hour, while the basic pay in Palau as provided by Public Law 8-21. industry’s yearly payroll by mainland as does Saipan but they Yap, while another garment com is $1.25 per hour, he said. Under the law which was $14.58 million. LasLyear the are also not covered by quota re pany owned by Asian investors Some Korean-owned garment signed on June 23, the basic industry, consisting of over strictions. This means that gar was expected to move to Palau. factories in Saipan are looking at hourly pay in the Common 20 factories with about 6,000 ment exports from thè two Two or three other factories may countries in South America, where wealth would increase by 30 workers, spent $54 million for Micronesian entities, though sub just shut down, he said. the basic hourly pay is less than cents every year until it salaries. ject to import duties, would not be The factory owner, who de- S I per hour, the businessmansaid. reaches $4.25, the current rate He projected the closure of restricted in volume.(NL) in favor of Babauta in 1903 elecfiòtis FINANCE Director Eloy S. Inos representative but said he was still yesterday said he was willing to very much interested on federal forego his plan to run for resident issues confronting the CNMI. representative in November to give He said, he had has been con way to incumbent JuanN. Babauta. vincing other party members to In an interview, Inos said he encourage Babauta to run again in would yield to Babauta if he de his current post so the party choice cides to ran for another term as would be narrowed down to just resident representative to the US. one. “I am willing to step aside so we The Democrats are fielding Rep can have the key team players of resentative Herman T. Guerrero our presentadministration running for the post intact The goal is to keep the party “There is always another time together, closer and stronger in the for certain things. What I would upcoming general elections,” Inos just like to say is that I do appreci said. ate all those who expressed their Babauta earlier challenged Gov support in one way or another. I ernor Lorenzo I. Guerrero in the look forward to serving in any other DFS maintains confidence; Republican Party primary. He and capacity,” Inos said. Senate President Juan S. Demapan In the event Babauta rules against assures partnership with NMI lost reelection, Inos said he might have Inos said he never submitted a to reevaluate the situation and re DUTY Free Shoppers yesterday company. letter of intent to run for resident consider his options. (RHA) reaffirm ed its com m itm ent to con A l d a n - P i e r c e s a i d D F S ’ g r o w t h tribute to the developm ent of the paralleled the upward trend of N orthern M arianas. tourism and the CN M I econom y. At the same time, Bob Coe, In 1976, less than 70,000 tourists president of D F S G roup for the visited the Com m onw ealth. This m id-Pacific region, assured that year, the num ber is proJected to while the com pany had not been exceed 500,000. silent w ith its opinions they “are “W e now have shops in all the in the genuine interest o f not only m aJor hotels and today we are the DFS fam ily but also in the here to officially open this m ag interest of the great people of the nificent D uty Free Shoppers G al CNMI.” leria, a testim ony to our contin C oe m ade the statem ent during ued com m itm ent to our em ploy the grand opening of Duty Free ees and to the people of the C om Shoppers G alleria, the com pany’s m onw ealth,” she said. S I 3.3 m illion expansion proJect D u r i n g h i s s p e e c h C o e p a i d t r i b at its m ain store in G arapan. ute to P. Thom as Picarro, DFS “I want you to know that we president for 13 years. “This G al have not lost our confidence in P. Thomas Picarro leria is T om ’s dream ,” Coe said. the leaders of the C om m onw ealth m ent B oard of the Trust Territory “I know because he first had to to m ake the decisions that will governm ent 19 years ago, DFS convince m e it w as the right step bring the econom ic forces back com m itted to m aintain at least a t o t a k e . ” on the right course,” C oe said. 90 percent local w orkforce. “N o one cared m ore about the DFS Saipan vice president Today, DFS Saipan employs DFS fam ily than Tom Picarro,” M arian A ldan-Pierce, during the more than 400, with local em he said. “Few people could be .......... sam e occasion, said the com pany ployees representing 91 percent lieve m ore in Saipan and the continued to honor its com m it of the total workforce. Aldan- CNM I that Tom did.” m ent to train and hire local people. Pierce, w ho w as am ong the first D uring yesterday’s cerem onies ROGER Pierre T. Tenorio, who became deacon only last December, W hen it applied for a business local em ployees, is now one of the G alleria w as dedicated to the will be ordained diocesan priest at the Mount Carmel Cathedral license w ith the Foreign Invest- tw o fem ale vice presidents of the m em ory of Picarro. (NL) tomorrow. ^MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VŒWS-FRIDAY-JULY 9.1993 Inos urges govt to cut spending FINANCE Director Eloy S. Inos funds. yesterday said the government “Our normal modus operandi should intensify efforts to reduce will be to lower expenditures from spending as revenues continue to the ordinary and necessary to the decline. absolute needs, which means we “It appears there will be a short all have to operate on the barest fall in resources. In order to avoid a minimum possible,” said Inos. deficit, we must try to beef up The government is still reeling revenue efforts and control spend from the effects of a $7.3 million ing to we can offset this with sav deficit last fiscal year. ings. If overall deficit is inevitable, Inos said the government’s pro our objective is to minimize that jected resources of $159.157 mil deficit,” Inos said in an interview. lion for He called on all departments and fiscal year 1993 might not be AGNES McPhetres, president of Northern Marianas College, covers face from sun during grand opening of agencies to be more wary and vigi achieved. Duty Free Shoppers Galleria yesterday. Also in photo is Roman Tudela, executive director of Commonwealth lant of spending habits and do away Inos said indications are such a - Ports A u t h o r i t y . _____________________________________________________________ with unnecessary expenditure of projection cannot be met “I see numbers popping up as to how much we are off from the projections. We can only estimate but this would be fairly close. But still we will know of the actual figures at the endof the fiscal year,” he said. “If indeed we experience a short fall, we need to do corresponding adjustments in the budget for the fiscal year to be done by the execu tive branch. An approved budget does not mandate spending but its r a n c e sets the ceiling, so even if the re sources fall short the adjustments stillcanbemade/’Inossaid. (RHA) No fishing, s a l e hunting in Pagan, Anatahan THE DEPARTMENT of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife has announced its compli ance and cooperation with the governor ’senrcgency declaration that the islands ofPagan and Anatahan are off-limits to the general public. Until further notice no hunting a fishing 1993 Toyota Previa's licenses will be issued for taking fish or game from Pagan or Anatahan. Pursuant to DFW Regulations Part 3, Section 12, all vessels and aircraft 1993 Toyota 4 x 4's traveling to the Northern Islandsmust notify tte Division of Fish and Wild life prior to departure and prior to return to allow inspection of the ves 1993 Toyota Τ-100's sel.

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