United States defence officials say the relocation of navy marines from Japan to Guam is expected to boost Guam's tax revenue by at least $37million US dollars a year.
Under the plan five thousand Marines currently on Okinawa in Japan will be moved to Guam over the next ten years.
However, a group representing the interests of Guam's indigenous Chamorro people, says the US is not paying for programmes that will mitigate what it expects to be significant social impacts from the troop build-up.
But efforts by the group, We Are Guahan, to oppose US army plans for a military firing range complex near Pågat, have been partially successful with the military shifting its preferred firing range site to federal property within Andersen Air Force Base
The Navy Times reports that more than $292 million worth of federally funded projects in the community to help with the buildup have been completed or approved.
