How to expand the local economy beyond tourism and federal spending -- that's what the governor's economic diversification working group has been looking into.

Highlights of its findings were presented at a roundtable meeting at the legislature Tuesday.

Economic development committee chairman, Sen. Roy Quinata called the meeting and was also the only lawmaker to show up.

The diversification working group, made up of public and private sector leaders, has been looking for ways to expand Guam's economic base beyond the longtime dual pillars of tourism and military spending.

Some of the new industries they're eying are regional construction, ship repair, transshipment, aquaculture and agriculture.

But there are challenges, Guam Economic Development Authority Administrator and CEO Melanie Mendiola said.

"But the biggest two things that have been identified have been of course the cost of doing business with regard to the land, and the time required for the building, licensing and all of that in the developing of our construction costs," she said.

GEDA business and economic development manager Ed Camacho also gave input.

"When we talk to investors out there, time is money, and going back to the permitting process, I mean we're talking about large investments in Guam thats gonna create hundreds of jobs. If it takes two to four years to clear the process, just to get a building permit it's not gonna happen. And we've seen that at GEDA in the past. We even had one hotel developer that we even issued a QC to and after several years they just said enough is enough."

Working group co-chair Siska Hutapea said another challenge is public land leases.

"If a project requires GLUC approval that already take 12 to 24 months out of the five-year lease and then to bring in that GLUC approval into a building permit groundbreaking it could take another 12 to 24 months, and with all that they're only going to be only one year to use that five-year lease," he said.

Mendiola responded, "The next steps for the economic diversification working group is basically presenting all of this as well to the governor, and we'll be attending the select USA conference for direct investors over two thousand of them, but we'd like to continue the discussion and for you to encourage your colleagues to look at the presentation that we provided and take a good hard look at where Guam stands."