‘Samoans are known for their great traditions of hospitality—and visiting athletes, officials, spectators and media persons would certainly be looking forward to that. But what will be severely tested during the run-up to the games as well as during the t


All eyes will be on Samoa this month as the big moment of the opening of the South Pacific Games (SPG) comes closer. The country has worked hard against all odds for four years. Its government, over that period, has had to set aside funds to pay huge infrastructure bills—something that has contributed in no small way to the slowing of the impressive growth rate it had notched up in the first few years of this decade.

Along the way it has had to face challenges that conditions in the Pacific islands present in projects like these: long delays, paucity of skilled labour and local materials, not enough infrastructure support, collapsing structures¬ —right down to problems like theft of building materials and equipment. In addition, it has had to endure the pessimism of critics who many times predicted the games would not even take off.

In the absence of any substantial aid from its big traditional regional partners—Australia and New Zealand—towards building infrastructure for the games and hosting them, it has had to rely on Chinese support.

The government of China has helped put up some of the biggest building projects Samoans have ever seen in their country. The games infrastructure compares with international standards.

Constrained by the realities of small islands environment, the games organisers have had to continuously innovate. Schools have been installed with billeting facilities and will host athletes. Local bus operators have been persuaded to make available their fleets to ferry athletes and officials across the island to different venues.

Despite all these odds, its small organising team has soldiered on and is today confident of having all the facilities for the 33 games and sports ready in time for the grand opening on August 25.

A specific challenge that Samoa faced was garnering sponsors. With a population that is just about 180,000, the country is unattractive for private sector companies to sink in any serious money into sponsorships. Even the organisers of the previous games in Fiji in 2003 had an uphill task getting sponsors, given Fiji’s much larger population and economic status.

But early on in the planning of the games, Samoa did one thing right: it began to work on finding ways and means of taking the games across the region with real time, live telecasts to all countries of the South Pacific. This has become a reality thanks to its teaming up with a broadcasting company based in Australia. For the first time in the history of the SPG, most of the 22 participating countries will be able to see their athletes live in action.

This has made television advertising attractive for sponsors owing to the large audience it will reach. But the live telecasts bring an even greater opportunity for Samoa to showcase itself to the larger world as a great tourist destination in the South Pacific, especially in view of its political stability. This, it can do, while it is the cynosure of all Pacific eyes for fifteen straight days. What an opportunity.

Another innovation this time around is the United Nations’ participation in utilising the universal appeal of sport to popularise the importance of the Millennium Development Goals throughout the Pacific islands region. Samoa is at the forefront of goal achievement in several sectors and the campaign is sure to score some brownie points in the popularity stakes for the host nation.

Samoans are known for their great traditions of hospitality—and visiting athletes, officials, spectators and media persons would certainly be looking forward to that. But what will be severely tested during the run-up to the games as well as during the two weeks of the SPG is their organising capacity.

Samoa has never organised an event of this proportion and it is the first time the entire nation’s coordination and organising skills will be put to the test.

What also remains to be seen is how the country will find ways and means of putting this great infrastructure to meaningful use after the games. This impressive set-up brings Samoans a great opportunity to train themselves intensively in their own country. Such facilities would never have existed if they were not built for these games.
Indeed, it is the permanent infrastructure that a mere fifteen-day event leaves behind that benefits the host country’s people for years to come. This is especially so in the case of sparsely populated, relatively isolated, non-industrial countries like most Pacific islands states whose governments would otherwise have neither the funds nor the motivation to see such infrastructure built.

It will be important for the event organisers in Samoa to quickly build a strategy meant to keep all these facilities in good order. It is no mean task to maintain such professional standard infrastructure without proper planning and strategy.

It requires a big commitment of both funds and efforts on the part of the government and sponsors. How do the Samoan authorities plan to achieve this? This is as good a time as any to encourage an abiding interest in sport and other physical activities among Samoan citizens, particularly in the younger generation, in whom a spirit of healthy competition could be engendered.

The government must plan and put in place programmes that will make these facilities pay for their own upkeep. Else, it will not be long before these expensive buildings, equipment and facilities housed in them fall to disuse.
The costs of rebuilding them at a future date would be far in excess of what would be needed to maintain them-not to speak of the lost opportunity of keeping a whole generation of Samoans healthy.