Cha Café customers on Feb. 27, 2024.
Cha Café and American Pizza and Grill operates in Garapan. John Lee, who run the businesses with his parents, hopes infrastructure projects in the area are completed in an efficient manner.
JOHN Lee, a small business owner, said CNMI leaders should offer more support to small businesses in the Garapan tourism district.
He believes that the outlook for small businesses is “not looking good at all.”
Lee and his parents operate Cha Café, American Pizza & Grill and Hafa Adai Roasting Company.
Cha Café and American Pizza & Grill operate side by side on Beach Road in Garapan, which Lee calls the “heartbeat of the CNMI.”
He said since the end of federal pandemic assistance, and with the slow recovery of the tourism-based economy, his family has been facing obstacles.
“The challenge of operating during these past few years has been exceptional, but I think right now is the most difficult period,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “We are not getting any federal assistance and our tourism industry has been quite flat. As a small business, I think it’s very important that we’re highlighted and supported all the time.”
Lee said small businesses are the “backbone of the economy.” Next to the government sector, small businesses “employ the most workers and also pay the most taxes,” he added.
He said it is not just his family business that is struggling.
“I don’t know how many small businesses are suffering, but I believe the vast majority are suffering,” Lee said. “We’re not sure what will happen and what the state of affairs will be here in the next year or two.”
He noted that of his 50-60 employees, most are young locals.
Lee wants CNMI leaders to open lines of communication to small businesspersons who, he said, are “left in the dark” when it comes to infrastructure and other projects that directly affect their businesses.
He cited as an example a waterline project that has blocked the exit his customers would have used.
“We have no idea what’s going on. Sometimes our roads are suddenly closed for weeks and months at a time,” Lee said.
He added that the Beach Road improvement and the Garapan revitalization projects are directly affecting businesses all over the island.
He said phase one of the Garapan revitalization project was supposed to be completed last year.
“Today, it’s almost March 2024, 15 months or three times the projected [completion] date of that one street [Paseo De Marianas] out of numerous streets in Garapan, and it’s still not open,” Lee said. “There has been no communication to the public even though it’s a public project and it’s affecting many businesses.”
Lee said communication “absolutely should happen.”
“The government simply needs to communicate. There are setbacks and delays all the time in projects. As a business owner I know that, especially with our location. But you need to communicate and give some kind of assistance to the businesses that are there, that have just finished surviving or have been surviving Covid,” he said.
Lee said government “assistance” does not necessarily have to be financial.
He said aside from communication, ensuring that major island projects get done efficiently is also a form of assistance to the affected businesses.
“I’m talking about elected officials and representatives making it their moral obligation and their duty to pursue these projects and make sure they’re done in a timely manner. And to be able to be the mediator and the communicator between the public and the government,” he said.
Lee is also looking for CNMI leaders who will address the “aggressive strategies of big companies” on Saipan that make it difficult for small businesses to compete in the tourism sector.
“For example, hotels are packaging their hotel rooms with dining and so what does that do? All the small businesses that are restaurants and even clothing and souvenirs shops would be suffering because there’s no need [for tourists] to go out,” Lee said.
He hopes that in the future, CNMI leaders will directly communicate with members of the public.
“They should walk the street, show their faces in person, and see the street [projects that] are not yet done,” Lee said. “They should say, ‘Hey this street is dangerous. Where are the lights? Why are there dogs running around here? Why is there no police presence?’ ”
On Feb. 22, 2023, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said, “Because we know that small businesses are truly the backbone of a healthy local economy, I am announcing today that I am accepting nominations and letters of interest from individuals who wish to serve in a voluntary capacity on the first Governor’s Small Business Advisory Council.”
The governor said he wanted to be sure “that I am hearing the voices and recommendations of our small businesses on the issues and policies that affect them, and by extension the wider economy.”
As of Tuesday evening, it was not known whether the Governor’s Small Business Advisory Council had been formed already.
