For Immediate Release
Office of the Director General of the Free Trade Directorate

SULLUSTAN SPACE IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
Welcome the newest member to the intergalactic table, the Free Trade Directorate

The future of the Ubiqtorate Expansive Regions appears bright with the establishment of the Free Trade Directorate. Today, the Sullustan Council once again relinquished all political and governmental authority to the SoroSuub Corporation. This move came after the council voted, granting the corporation sovereignty. However, there’s a hitch in that agreement: the SoroSuub Corporation would not exact political control, but through the newly-created Free Trade Directorate, the planet and its people would be properly represented.

After a rousing speech from Sei Maru, President of the Sullustan Council and the newly-elected Chairman of SoroSuub Corporation, members of the council saw the need for the directorate.

“We need real representation for our world and our people,” Councilor Mrke Tolik said.

Sei Maru spoke today about the development and recourse for Sullust and its people: "We are a strong and powerful people. We want what is in the best interest of the Sullustans and reorganizing into a directorate aimed at providing fiscal and political collateral in the galaxy is the way to go. Not just the Sullustans but other disfavored and repudiated cultures can seek haven within the directorate. This organization considers the galaxy orderly and functional, but the lack of respect, garnered by the humanocentrism, has not changed or improved—how can we survive in such a galaxy?"

Unlike other megaconglomerates, the Free Trade Directorate expects to implement their strategy of harnessing most of its control in a single entity, but periodically establish their interests as a whole. Instead of a council of members, who oversee the operations of the cartel, the actual directorate controls its operations from the several elected officials chosen by the SoroSuub Corporation. The organization moves as a collective throughout space as opposed to being individual planets—each member planet under the organization are known as a 'member or permanent representative body of the Free Trade Directorate'.

Each member or permanent representative provides a delegate to represent their interests to the governing chassis at annual conference, which comprises of the Free Trade Directorate Secretariat , officers that direct the meeting proceedings: the Director General, the Secretary General, the Executive Secretary, and the Executive Chancellor. These officers become the backbone for authority. Currently, the founding Director General of the Free Trade Directorate is Sei Maru.

Maru’s appointment to the Presidency of Sullustan Council has received much skepticism marked from radical movements claiming that SoroSuub Corporation destroyed the Sullustan government.

After a brief organizational meeting with his advisors and several planets considering the directorate’s proposal, Maru said, “I understand the plight of these radical groups, but the political and economic authority always rested with the SoroSuub Corporation—we paid all governmental expenses.”

Maru’s administration of the SoroSuub Corporation had come under serious criticism lately. For the past several weeks, he held numerous meetings with these groups to establish some harmony. One of the strongest groups, the New Sullustan Brethren (NSB), continues to vocalize their displeasure with the corporation’s decisions.

A spokesperson for the group said, “We will not rest until Maru changes policy and provides our planet with some sort of independence from the corporate entity that our people and planet have become. We should not be recognized by corporate interests.”

Part of the problem stems from the symbiotic nature of the planet and its corporate power. The planet would not be so powerful or pronounced in the intergalactic arena if it were not for their precious raw materials mined from the planet’s surface or the lucrative corporate trade of starship construction, weapons production, and other initiatives that have secured a hefty profit.

The SoroSuub Corporation, with its revenue, stands as the third highest-grossing starship production facility in the galaxy after Santhe/Sienar Technologies and Kuat Drive Yards. The conglomerate also produces weapons, communications, droids, land vehicles, and other useful technologies throughout the galaxy. Much of company profits go toward the Sullust System’s economy and annually pay Sullustans. Tax benefits and other incentives come from the SoroSuub Corporation for which over three billion Sullustans are currently employed. Also, all social programs and public policy initiatives that the government undertook was at the expense of the corporation, which has become one of the major contribution from the corporation.

However, these radical groups refute the legitimacy of Maru’s apparent monopoly of control. The protests assert that past grievances ranging from cut wages to recent foreign policy with the Corporate Sector sends a message that SoroSuub Corporation is unstoppable. Since the Regional Imperial Courts decided in favor of the Corporate Sector, the argument for the radical groups does not seem so clear.

Maru said that the issues of the courts and the wages cuts have been taken completely out of proportion: “We have never cut Sullustan worker wages, and in fact, we amicably paid our workers during the duration of our trial which lasted several weeks. We accrued over 12 billion credits in expenses; about half went toward paying wages for no work. I do not understand these allegations at all.”

While these protests mark the beginning of more criticism, Maru pushes that the Free Trade Directorate will make Sullustans and other member planets proud. The directorate plans to reach out to other planets in the Outer Rim, and any intergalactic government that would like to join can contact SoroSuub Corporation.