Islands Business - Cover Story: SAMOA --CHANGING SKYLINE, SOCIAL MORES

Over the past few years, the country has done a number of things right to usher in this new era.

Dev Nadkarni

The main square in Apia, Samoa

It's not hard to see why Samoa is at the top of the heap of Pacific Islands nations in the development indices. All her villages are connected by sealed roads, have electricity, piped drinking water, primary schools and telephones. Importantly, too, Samoa has enjoyed a very stable political environment. Over recent years, these impressive achievements have earned praise from aid organisations around the world.

Ever since the advent of Christianity, churches have been the biggest structures in all its villages and towns, their towers often taller than coconut palms.

That is now clearly changing. There is more construction activity. The preparations for the next South Pacific Games (SPG) are seeing hectic activities in and around Apia.

Large sporting complexes built with Chinese aid and expertise now dwarf village churches. Steel and glass structures in downtown Apia like the SamoaTel building, touted as the South Pacific's first 'intelligent building', reflect the changes now happening in Samoa.

The construction industry grew by 39% last year, as a result of reconstruction projects following hurricane Heta, the ongoing SPG building projects and spurt in small and large tourist resorts across Samoa, notably Aggie Grey's at Faleolo.

Over the past few years, the country has done a number of things right to usher in this new era. It has progressively privatised public service organisations like ports and the public works department, making them professionally managed and responsible for their own finances-clean-mean efficient machines like those in the private sector.

It has also deregulated the telecom industry, bringing in newer technologies and a choice of operators for online services, though telecom rates continue to be high in comparison with other Pacific nations, mainly due to a combination of high terrain costs and low-density population. Lately, it has brought in legislation to facilitate investments in the tourism industry and has removed tariffs on goods and services imported for use in that industry.

Like elsewhere in the Pacific Islands nations, Samoa still has some way to go in legislating private ownership of property, especially from the point of view of foreign investors. But it is ahead of most other regional nations.

Public and community consultations on a strata title legislation that is expected to have a far-reaching effect on the tourism industry are currently in process, but critics see it as progressing too slowly due to the forthcoming general election due early next year.

Samoa's GDP growth took a beating in 2004 following hurricane Heta, clocking 3.5% below the five-year average of 4.2%. This is expected to remain steady at 3.5% over the next two years.

The government, earlier in the year, upped the minimum wage rate. But it has not made much of a difference, say observers. The increase in fuel prices and their cascading effects on consumer goods has dampened whatever benefit the wage increase has brought about. But inflation is in much better control this year than it was in 2004, having peaked at 21% year-on-year.

Changing social mores

Like most Pacific Islands economies, Samoa has long been a subsistence economy that has transited towards a monetised one over the past few decades. By and large, the country seems to have taken the transition in its stride, quite like the manner in which it has adapted fairly well to the western system of government since independence in 1962, at least up until now.

But development comes at a cost. "It's not like the old times anymore, when nobody had to work to earn money," says senior citizen Tasileta, who lives in a village, just outside the capital Apia. "Now we need someone to work outside and earn money to pay the bills."

With not many paid jobs in the rural economy, there is a rising tide of villagers making their way to Apia, the country's only urban centre.

Director of the Institute of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa (NUS), Dr Le'apai Lau Asofou So'o says the new cash economy has had individualism creeping into community values. "This is eroding traditional Samoan values and it's happening everywhere-my family included," he says.

Asofou expects more changes in the Samoan society in the near to medium future. "Changes in expectations are already causing conflicts in extended families. There are more court battles involving land titles-and we will see more of these," he observes. He thinks the possibility of social conflict and instability is greater now than at anytime before. "Unlike in the past, non-wage earners suffer most and the safety net traditionally provided by the extended families cannot be expected to bail the people out in future."

There are other straws in the wind. An increase in suicide rate has now reached worrying proportions. Samoa has had to contend with rising petty crime. Recently, a statistical interpretation of suicide cases across the followers of various church denominations that appeared in the local media caused a furore. NGOs working in the field were simply unavailable for comment following the incident.

Asofou sees suicide as a growing problem and relates it to the fast changing socio-economic scenario in the country. He sees high cost of living, lack of jobs for school leavers, shrinking agricultural markets and socio-religious pressures as destabilising factors.

"Church could be a factor, but not the only one and certainly not a big one," he says. He thinks the main reason may be personal or to do with family pressures. Whatever they may be, they seem to boil down to money-or the lack of it.

While he says no church forces anybody to donate or contribute, church leaders are only too well aware of the tremendous social pressure their congregations face for donating to their churches.

"There is a very strong social influence on people to donate things to the church," he says. The remedy, he believes, has to come from within the church. "Any meaningful change has to come from the church. Action has to come from there and the poor need to be convinced that they don't have to contribute more than they need to."

Percival agrees. "The church and religion have been taking away too many funds, which otherwise would have been available for private investment," he says. "We are still in the feudal era as far as the church's influence on our economy goes. Like Europe was in the middle ages. Europe moved on, Samoa has yet to."

Down trend in farming

If the increasing importance of the cash economy is a pull factor for urban migration, shrinking markets for agricultural produce, higher input costs and lower available labour in rural areas contribute to a push factor.

"Frustration has grown considerably among agriculturists and that fuels migration not just towards the city but also overseas," says Asofou.

Samoa Association of Manufacturers and Exporters (SAME) president, Papali'i Grant Percival feels the government has neglected the agricultural sector at the expense of tourism. "There is now a disincentive for farming. Duty free cheap foods have flooded the markets. They are cheaper to purchase than farming your own vegetables," he says.

He sites SAME's estimate of 126 million coconuts going to waste every year as an instance of government's neglect of the sector. "Those coconuts are worth Samoa's fuel bill," he says.

Commerce Ministry CEO Lemalu Samau Tate Simi says although considerable resources were committed to agriculture over the years, they proved unproductive.

He says now the government is encouraging value added agro-products and is hopeful of better export numbers in the near future.

New Zealand has increased its assistance to Samoa in the agro sector. "Commercial trade in breadfruit and papaya commenced in 2005.

The real challenge now is to develop capacity to deliver exports in commercial quantities and support these with marketing strategies," says New Zealand High Commissioner to Samoa John Adank.

"The ministry of agriculture has a dedicated specialist working with Samoan exporters and the agriculture ministry to develop quarantine measures aimed at ensuring that Pacific exporters have access to the New Zealand market."

Even so, agriculture's share in GDP continues to plummet. What was 10% of GDP in 1999 fell to 6.5% in 2004. The fall is magnified partly by the fact that the construction and tourism industries have grown spectacularly in the last few years.

Tourism the buzzword

However, the gap between earnings through agricultural activity and tourism has continually grown and it is not surprising that tourism is the buzzword in Samoa. The government's tourism promotion policy has brought about impressive returns with the sector now the largest revenue earner after remittances. It has also helped bring in more tourists than ever.

ANZ Bank Samoa's managing director Mandy Simpson sees great opportunities in the tourism sector. Having recently sponsored a tourism conference in Apia, she feels there is now a greater appreciation by the people about what tourism can do to grow the economy.

Tourism's supporters claim the sector has created jobs in rural Samoa as a result of "beach fale tourism" where tourists now have more alternatives to stay in basic beachfront accommodations in Samoan villages, instead of Apia's hotels.

While this has somewhat addressed Samoa's underemployment problem, not everyone sees it as a good thing for its economy and environment. "Predominance of tourism has taken attention off Samoa's indigenous industry," says Percival.

Publisher and editor of the Samoa Observer, Savea Sano Malifa feels there already are too many people on the beaches. "Government is overdeveloping the place," he says. He also feels that tourism's contribution to Samoa's 13,000 formal-sector jobs has not been significant enough.

Elections in 2006

"All this talk about tourism boom is an election ploy," claims Percival. Election in Samoa will be held towards the end of the first quarter of 2006. Although campaigning is yet to begin, the inevitable signs of an impeding election are becoming evident.

The ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRRP) has enjoyed a long time in power and will seek re-election next year. In the last elections in 2001, the party won 22 seats, the opposition Samoa National Development Party (SNDP) won 13, and independents won 14.

The controversies following the elections that included charges of electoral malpractice against senior elected leaders were heard by the Supreme Court later that year. None of the leaders were found guilty.

Prime Minister Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi will seek a third term as the country's chief executive.

Though popular through most of his tenure, his leadership has come in for criticism lately, particularly this year as a result of the strike by government doctors.

In its seventh week at the time of going to press, there seems to be no end in sight.

"The government probably wants to show its tough stand," says one observer. "It knows there isn't really a crisis situation with the doctors from India and China holding the fort."

The doctors are striking for better wages and a controversial, government-appointed enquiry commission comprising individuals drawn from other professions like architects and accountants has been given an extension to file its report that will recommend further action on the matter.

Meanwhile, patients continue to pile up at the country's biggest medical facility in Apia.

Tuila'epa's government has not had a strong enough opposition, feels Asofou. "Too much unchecked power is never good," he says. "We need a better opposition-the present one does not have the required force."

He also believes the electoral system needs reform, though there have been considerable reforms lately.

"I speak of reforms from the cultural standpoint," he continues. "Our people need to learn to suspend their cultural compulsions at least on the day of the elections and cast votes practically.

"Merging culture and electoral politics is dangerous. Candidates' compulsion to send gifts to their constituencies leads to greed after they are elected."

To check electoral malpractice, the government has introduced identity cards with photographs and fingerprints. These will be implemented in the 2006 elections.

Though most people ISLANDS BUSINESS talked with thought HRPP would ultimately emerge the winner, most predict a tougher fight this time round.

Anti-incumbency and the bright new kid-on-the-block, the Samoa Party led by sacked government chief auditor Su'a Rimoni Ah Chong, are seen as factors expected to offer tense moments to the ruling party.