PRIME MINISTER TUILAEPA & TVNZ
(Editor’s Note; The following is the transcript of a brief recorded interview by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi with a local representative of TVNZ News crew.)
TVNZ: Samoa’s strict border control measures have clearly kept Samoa COVID free and saved lives, what has the economic impact been?
PM: Extremely bad, just like New Zealand and Australia.
Preliminary estimate a 5% deduction in our Gross Domestic Product and as the Pandemic continues with restriction in travels, the adverse impact will grow more. The visitor industry is the worse hit, and also all the visitor’s related industries like taxi business and also restaurants, hotels. These are all the businesses which are impacted.
TVNZ: Concerned going forward, how will the country recover?
PM; As you know we are trying to ease the restrictions very very careful, so that we do not open the door too wide in case we do have cases of infections especially when we have to open up travelers.
There are still possibilities for this to happen.
We have the merchant shipping bringing in goods and also some fishing boat and it is quite possible that infection could come to Samoa through this ongoing trade and it is also the reason why we have stress to our officials to impose very tight control measures. So we will gradually open up but at the same time we have to be very careful.
Locally this week we have started to open up bus travels, taxis, restaurants, you know small tactics as well as shops and we’re also trying to maintain social distance that is very common for all the countries to try and minimize the issue of infection.
TVNZ: Mr. Prime Minister as New Zealand edges towards COVID free, what are the chances of open up the boarders between the two countries?
PM: Well, we have decided to schedule the first flight from New Zealand around about the second time now, it was originally scheduled for the 19th, last week and now on the 22nd this week.
At the same time we are still debating, that we still not open it, so once we are open it, we are still very worried. Why? Because New Zealand does not allow pre-testing all those who will be boarding the plane.
I would have like to pre-testing before boarding the plane done in New Zealand.
That would give us a great assurance, that those who come will be only those who are clear, but for New Zealand Government to refuse our request and to allow them to come here to do it, and we only have 240 test kits, we are thinking very carefully, within the next week if we change our mind and there will be no flight.
TVNZ; Would that be the way Samoa goes instead of opening its borders to everyone would it just allow visitors from COVID 19 free countries?
PM: No, we cannot believe that a flight a flight from any COVID free country is actually COVID free.
We will be criticized from being too early for several days, too early into closing our boarders especially being very very tough. Even, sending back quite a few of our returning patients on Fiji Air Ways back to Fiji, we were severely criticized by Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and also the World Health Organisation.
What we were doing? You see there is a proverbial saying that once bitten twice shy, we have been hit hard by the measles and we did not want to be bitten again for the second time. That’s why we took off at the first sign of the COVID 19 and was criticized very heavily because of that part.
We made the decision and that’s it.
