Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Guam businesses eyeing benefits from the US marines relocating

Posted at 23:50 on 18 February, 2009 UTC

Guam’s Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to what a planned military buildup will mean for the US territory’s economy.

“The United States and Japan signed a deal yesterday (tuesday ) to relocate 8000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa in Japan to Guam.”

The bulk of the relocation costs are to be covered by the US and Japan, but Guam will have to meet some of expenses arising from an infrastructure upgrade.

Landowners on the island are opposed to the relocation but the Chamber’s chair, Frank Campillo, says it’ll bring many economic opportunities.

“We’ll see a huge amount of construction activity: we need to improve our island infrastructure, the streets, the waterways, the distribution of electricity, we need to build new housing. We understand there’ll be between 8 and 10 billion dollars of construction activity.”

Frank Campillo says there’ll also be long term benefits for the people, such as better health and education services, and improved infrastructure.