CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios and Rota Mayor Aubry Hocog are responding to the Rota Chamber of Commerce’s concerns about the cost of doing business. In an interview with KUAM last week on Rota, the chamber voiced their frustrations over the cost and lack of shipping.

Palacios said, "I watched the interview with some of our members of Rota Chamber of Commerce and I totally agree that this something has to be done and you know, I totally agree with everybody except Juan Pan [Guerrero]. You know, my friend Juan Pan, they thought we were sleeping at the wheel. We haven't. Let me just put things in perspective and in proper context. This administration has never really had the opportunity to get in there because we just know who constituted the new leadership under this administration at CPA. So we're looking at that."

The governor is now working to address those issues, which he says aren’t new. Rota Mayor Aubry Hocog shares those concerns. She spoke to KUAM news in a separate interview.

Hocog said, "It's very expensive. Many of our people tell us, even through posts on social media, how the cost of one item is compared to others. And it's it's very, very difficult to afford to live here on Rota."

Palacios is traveling to Rota this week and plans to meet with local leaders, including the Chamber. Meanwhile, he says there are things that can be done now to ease the burden.

Palacios added, "In discussing that with the new CPA chair, I think those are obstacles that we could we could address immediately. One of them is to buy, you know, equipment to make it a lot easier to offload goods, whether through a large conveyor belt or through a small boom truck kind of thing, to just lift those things out and make it easier for our merchants."

Rota Mayor Hocog says there’s more to learn. She explained, "We need to do an assessment. You know, many of these people have shared with me that it is cheaper to send items from Korea to Saipan but it's more costly to send items from Saipan to Rota. And in fact, there's something we need to look at because many of the commodities we have come from small chartered boats and the costs are still the same. They don't offload through RTT, they offload through the West Harbor Marina, yet the price of commodities still remains. So we need to really take a look at an assessment or, you know, go take and have an assessment done as to really what is the trigger."

Governor Palacios also shares the Rota Chamber’s concern over long wait times for licenses and permits. He supports a One Stop Shop Business License and Permitting Center.

Palacios said, "But a small community like Rota to have a small company, we need to have a lot more responsive agencies to take a look at that. And I don't see why it has to be it all has to come to Saipan before those permits are issued."

Palacios says the infrastructure of all CNMI ports came up in his high-level talks in D.C. last week. He admits that it's about implementation, not just legislation. Hocog and Palacios say they’ll continue to listen to the community’s concerns.

Hocog said, "So our delegation, we really need to sit down and address how can we limit or how can we reduce the, you know, the touch of the commodities from one facet to another to see how we can help them save money, because ultimately when we make them save money our consumers will save money. "