KEY POINTS:
Vice President of the World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region remains positive about the future of Samoa's economy.
James Adams spoke about his hopes for the Samoan economy during a recent trip to Samoa.
"I'm quite optimistic," he said.
"I think the performance will continue to be
solid. I think that the big challenge is the one that the Government effectively is addressing and thinking through and working on. That big challenge is, how does the Government mobilize additional investment in private sector, both foreign and domestic, where policies can improve."
Adams says although the world economy has experienced problems, islands such as Samoa are protected by the regions interdependence.
Samoa having experienced a somewhat sombre period in its economy can relinquish its former thriving status by encouraging investments in partnership with international organizations such as the World Bank.
Adams said: "We have talked to the Government about various ways we can assist, and one of the instruments that I hope to be able to use is the private sector arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC)."
The Vice President said there are areas where Samoa is doing exceptionally well, which include Government reforms.
"It has a strong reform programme, it has made a lot of progress with respect to the overall status of the economy," he said.
Adams conducted extensive meetings with Samoan officials in the Ministry of Finance and other sectors of the Samoan Government.
Currently the World Bank invests approximately SAT$5 million tala into Samoa on an annual basis.
Despite the optimism of the World Bank Samoa's economy continues on a downward spiral according to the most recent Foreign Trade Report by the Central Bank of Samoa (CBS).
The report posted unfavourable outcomes on major economic indicators for Samoa's current account.
It noted that the merchandise trade deficit increased due to rising import payments and lower export earnings while tourism revenue recorded a seasonal decline.
In part due to this Adams said he hopes that the contribution by the World Bank will increase in coming years to Samoa as they increase its focus on the region.
Meanwhile, the Samoan Government were mum about the visit by the Vice President.
