stays on

Kramer stays on

JERRY Kramer has no regrets about coming to the Marshall Islands more than 30 years ago. Kramer, 52, is one of the most successful businessmen with interests in several ventures on Majuro, the republic’s administrative centre. But what spurred Kramer to stay on in Majuro and do business there is the friendliness of the Marshallese people and the luring attractions of the atolls of the Marshall Islands and an attractive business environment.

“The Marshalls has the most friendly people I have ever come across,” Kramer says. “The friendliness is unique.”

Kramer arrived in the Marshalls in 1961 to work as an electronics technician on Kwajalein Atoll, now a missile testing base for the United States. Two years later, Kramer began a copra trading business in the Marshall Islands after buying the Fiji government vessel Ai Sokula ( PIM Sept 1963, featured a report

on Kramer).

And now, 30 years later, Kramer has

emerged as one of the most successful and major businessmen on Majuro. Kramer now has a booming construction com pany (The Pacific International Inc which built Majuro’s biggest building complex, the $ 10-million Majuro Capitol Complex), copra company, travel agency, insurance firm, and has served as director/president on the boards and committees of numerous companies on Majuro. Kramer now employs the largest number of people on Majuro. The workforce on all his businesses total more than 250. The latest project for his

construction company is the completion of the Eastern Gateway Hotel. Work on the hotel is scheduled to start in May and is expected to be completed by August next year.

So much was Kramer’s contribution to the development of Majuro that the President, Amata Kabua, and cabinet decided, in 1989, to give as a gift the Marshalls citizenship. “I hold it with pride,” Kramer says of the citizenship.

But Kramer says he owes his business success to President Kabua. “We have a very progressive minded president who has helped create this business environ ment.”

Kramer’s advice the potential inves tors/tourists “Unique people in their friendliness, terrific diving and fishing spots and superb long white beaches.”

For the business investors “The Marshalls has quota-free access to the United States and the Pacific.” Kramer has seven children and four grandchildren. □

Pictures: ARVIND KUMAR Jerry Kramer: no regrets

Majuro Capitol Complex: built by Kramer