Adelup gives economic development overview

by Nick Delgado

Guam - After discussing ways to improve services and fight poverty, the administration finished its first week of briefings with initiatives to build a more sustainable future. Today members from the Governor's Office along with several government agencies and departments discussed ways in streamlining the regulatory process, making more economic and development efforts and working with the education task force and military buildup office.

Governor's social and economic advisor Henry Taitano said, "A lot of it is to identify a lot of the opportunities that are currently available, you hear a lot of discussions in the media about policy, developments with respect to the military buildup and the China visa waiver. What we need to kind of focus on is the actual work that is getting done now and the many opportunities we have."

And although no loans have been issued yet, GEDA administrator Karl Pangelinan discussed efforts to get businesses growing by providing an update on the $13.1 million awarded to Guam through the State Small Business Credit Initiative that would translate into possibly $131 million in lending to small businesses that are not getting the loans they need to expand and create jobs.