"The major garment manufacturer in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, United International Corporation, officially ceased its operations yesterday. (Mon NZT)"
Many former workers, mostly longtime employees, have already left Saipan.
Some of them had worked in the factory for more than fifteen years.
In 2000 there were more than one thousand workers at the factory, most of them Chinese.
250 workers were Filipinos, but by last year that number had dropped to just fifty.
UHC has now joined seven other garment factories that have closed since the start of this year.
Only three garment factories remain operating on Saipan.
CNMI used to have 34 garment factories, contributing some $60 million annually in taxes to the local government.
