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The Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa says the Fiji coup has increased tourism to his country but he fears it is having an impact on investment in the region.
Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, who is also Tourism Minister, said the actual coup had not affected tourism, but the spat over the expulsion of NZ's High Commissioner to Suva, Michael Green, had brought a marked increase in visitors to Samoa.
"It's been tremendous. We are going to earn close to 290 million Samoan tala [about $550 million] in the financial year that's just ended at the end of June. We, in fact, have done very, very well."
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Samoa with a 67-strong delegation, including MPs, officials and non-governmental organisations. The party was spread across three hotels because of high bookings.
But Mr Telefoni said although tourism was important, instability in the region was affecting the confidence of foreign investors.
Just after an earlier Fiji coup, in May 2000, Mr Telefoni was in Geneva making a presentation to a Chamber of Commerce and was surprised that those attending did not appear to differentiate between Pacific Island countries. After my presentation ... all the questions were about Fiji. We are very hung up in the Pacific at the moment about attracting foreign investment. I could not convince my audience there was a world of difference, culturally, racially, between Fiji and Samoa," he said.
"I think the perception of people sitting in board rooms in New York and London is that trouble anywhere in the Pacific is trouble everywhere in the Pacific. Samoa is seen as the model economy in terms of achievement and yet we have had our problems trying to attract foreign investment.
"I think all the focus of the Asian Development Bank and IMF has been on us because they've been of the view that if Samoa can't attract foreign investment then who can?"
Samoa had GDP growth of 2.6 per cent last year and exports S$263.3 million, mainly fish, clothing, beer, coconut oil and cream, automotive parts and taro.
Mr Peters described Samoa as a "pin-up" country for the Pacific.
"Sadly in recent times we have seen elsewhere in the Pacific, in tragic circumstances, how the breakdown of law and order, combined with the erosion of traditional power structures, has led to a serious reversal of economic fortunes," he said.
"In contrast, Samoa stands out as a beacon of stability in the region."
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi said New Zealand had played a key role in the country's stability.
"Things are moving very smoothly."
He said the NZAid programme of about $10 million a year focused on institution strengthening and capacity building.
"This is an area which is very, very important in ensuring that the workings of the Government are as efficient as possible.
"And that means that the people in positions of authority do understand what the responsibilities are and that the good gov-ernance principles of accountability and transparency are being complied with," he said.
"Failures in good governance is the general cause of the many failures in democracies in many small island countries."
- NZPA
