Consultation on MPE Draft Policy Documents
Tuesday, 18th July 2023-Taumeasina Island Resort @ 10:00 am
O lea ua nuu tofi a le solo na faga-uta i Taumeasina nei o tua o Faatoia-le-manu, i le afifio maualuga o lo outou paia ma mamalu; o sui o Komiti Faatonu, o sui o Pulega a Matagaluega ma Faalapotopotoga a le tatou Malo.
Ua togi ai le pa tau le ave i le faamoemoe ua taunuu, ona o le alofa taitai pea a lo tatou Tapaau i le lagi.
Talofa, malo le soifua manuia.
Representatives of Public Bodies Board of Directors, senior management of Government Ministries and Public Bodies, Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is my pleasure to welcome you to this workshop to discuss the Ministry of Public Enterprise’s Overarching Policy for the Provision of Public Services, and the updated 2023 Public Private Partnership Handbook. I am very pleased to have our esteemed colleagues from the Asian Development Bank’s Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) here in Samoa, who have assisted the Ministry in formulating these important policy frameworks.
These frameworks will assist the Government of Samoa in expanding our traditional approaches to providing essential public services, such as education, health care, and infrastructure. Maximizing public welfare will always remain our Government’s underlying objective and the Overarching Policy for the Provision of Public Services will provide us with a framework to assess the best ownership and control arrangements for the delivery of public services in Samoa.
The frameworks have three inter-linking driving forces.
- First, there will be greater focus on identifying services which may be better undertaken by Public Bodies (also known as State Owned Enterprises/Public Enterprises) than by Ministries.
- Second, there will be greater scrutiny on the performance of Public Enterprises and corrective actions taken by the Government of Samoa where necessary. Part of this scrutiny will involve challenging SOEs to show that they have actively considered the potential for use of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to add value.
- Third, there will be automatic screening of PPP potential for the larger projects which may require budget and/or grant funding. It is the responsibility of any Government to ensure that the community receives the public services that have been promised, at the expected level of service and in a manner that reduces the impost on the taxpayer and user. The Government of Samoa is committed to meeting this responsibility.
PPPs are an important tool to be utilized in this endeavor. There is strong evidence internationally that PPPs can add value if suitably structured. Their potential in Samoa is yet to be fully realized. The updated PPP Handbook that will be discussed today incorporates lessons learnt since Samoa’s initial PPP Handbook was released in 2017. Prudent use of PPPs offers opportunities to support private sector involvement in public infrastructure development, leverage private capital, enhance public service delivery, and provide better value for money outcomes to the taxpayer, in line with the Pathway for the Development of Samoa (PDS) 2022-2026.
I look forward to hearing from the presenters on the Overarching Policy for the Provision of Public Services, and the updated 2023 Public Private Partnership Handbook. Since you will all have a role to play in the application and implementation of these policies/frameworks, so I am very pleased that you are all here to participate in this important workshop, and encourage your feedback, which will be used to finalize these two documents for submission to Cabinet later this year.
I thank again the ADB and PSDI for their continued support to the Government of Samoa.
Soifua ma ia manuia.
