Chamber Meets with Governor

December 22, 2006

The President, the 1st Vice President and the Treasurer of the Chamber met last Wednesday with the Governor to brief him on the Chamber's new strategy for 2007, the composition of the newly elected Executive Board, and matters of concern to members such as tax reform, immigration and the cost of utilities.

Also discussed was the Chamber's White Paper on potential new developments in various industry sectors such agricultural development, fisheries, light manufacturing and tourism, and the need for policy reforms and privatization in certain areas of government.

The Governor expressed his pleasure with the new approach that was being adopted by the Chamber in becoming a relevant and constructive organization that would provide a commercial non-partisan interface between government and the private sector, and he said that he would advise various Heads of Departments about the initiatives being undertaken by the Chamber to stimulate the economy with new investment and development and ensure that they participated in future discussions.

The Governor advised the Chamber that he would like to hold regular meetings to discuss the issues raised by the private sector and suggested that at least a quarterly meeting would be appropriate depending of course on individual work commitments.

The President advised that meetings were scheduled with the Fono and DOC, and that a briefing regarding the Chamber's strategy has already been presented to the local office of the Department of the Interior.

The Chamber would like to be included in all discussions with future incoming trade missions and to be included where practical in future outgoing trade missions with members of various government departments.

In summing up, the President thanked the Governor for making time for the meeting and said that he was most encouraged by the Governor's remarks regarding many of the issues raised as it was quite clear that both he and the Chamber were thinking and planning along the same lines to provide significant economic stimulus to the Territory's economy.