More jobs and 3D printing.

Business and government officials coming together at a workshop held at the Hyatt Regency Guam in Tumon this week.

The discussion surrounded a venture that started a year ago with GovGuam and Astro America's president Neal Orringer.  

"GovGuam hired Astro America to do a feasibility analysis to determine if we should be building an additive manufacturing center to support the development of new manufacturing capabilities here on island," he said.

Astro America –  the Applied Science and Technology Research Organization of America – was first formed in 2018. The company is dedicated to advancing public interest through manufacturing technology and policy.

"This is new, advance technology that is going to bring hopefully new jobs and new business development for the island and for the economy," Orringer said.

He spoke with potential key players including the Guam Economic Development Authority, Guam Shipyard, Univesrsity of Guam, Guam Community Collete, Port Authority of Guam, Guam International Airport Authority, and others.

He’s now conducting a feasibility study for Guam.

"An ideal world in the next 24 months, we could try to work with the federal government and other stakeholders to try to start setting up a center that is going to start doing some of that workforce development, as well research development investment, and hopefully start bringing on new jobs here on the island," Orringer said. 

GEDA Administrator Melanie Mendiola also spoke at the event. 

"The more industries we have, the more resilient we become," she said.

She recalled how it all started.

"The governor called me one day and she said, Mel, I want you to look into this additive manufacturing," Mendiola said. "I said, yes, gov, no problem. She says, yeah I think this could be really good for Guam with the military buildup. So I went onto the internet and Googled what is additive manufacturing."

And Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero shared how she is ready for growth.

"We’ve brought a lot of good people to our island and possible investors to help us not just grow our economy but to help us with the better quality of life for our people because your investment in here is just going to go right back out to our community and businesses and provide better services for our island," she said. "That’s how I see this whole economic growth, investment and so forth."