Tuesday, 13 February 2024 @ 9.00am – Venue: Level 6, CBS Building
Reverend Iese Uele
Honorable Lautimuia Afoa Uelese Vaai, Minister of Finance and ADB Governor for Samoa
Honorable Ministers of Cabinet
Members of the Diplomatic Corp and ADF Donors
Government Officials
Ladies and Gentlemen
TALOFA LAVA
• I am very pleased to be here today – it is my first visit to Samoa, and I wish to acknowledge your kind hospitality since I arrived on Saturday. More importantly, I am grateful for the valuable discussions on ADB’s operations in Samoa in particular the advice on how ADB can continue to be a close partner of the Samoan Government and strive to ensure we are best able to meet your needs with differentiated approaches.
• I also wish to thank you all for joining us on this occasion – to officially open the ADB Samoa Pacific Country Office. As a founding member of ADB in 1966, Samoa and ADB have been partners for over 57 years. Over that time, our partnership has continued to grow with over $480 million in loans, grants and technical assistance to assist Samoa meets its evolving development objectives.
• I am pleased to say that this partnership has helped Samoa to achieve real results. In the past 30 years, ADB has been grateful to support the government install over two thirds of new energy generation capacity. We have supported the government to upgrade water supply and sanitation, enhance its ICT connectivity, strengthen education and most recently to enhance critical port and road infrastructure, as well as support vaccines rollout and improve health systems.
• I am also pleased to be here at such an important time in this long relationship. In 2024, ADB is busy working with the authorities to approve a further $120 million in grant financing for critical budget support and to protect the city of Apia from future flood events and enhance its water supply.
• Of course, ADB’s ability to work closely with the Government of Samoa has relied heavily on the important work undertaken by our Samoa Country Office.
• Our presence here in Samoa began back in 2010 when ADB and the World Bank worked together to establish our joint presence. We continued to co-locate with our World Bank colleagues until 2016 when a separate office was established. Today is another major milestone in this engagement with our new expanded ADB Samoa Pacific Country Office being inaugurated today. I want to acknowledge the wonderful support and cooperation of our World Bank colleagues, formerly with now CEO/ADB Alternate Governor Maeva Betham-Vaai and more recently with Ms Antonia Wong and her team.
• The opening event today is symbolic of ADB’s continuing commitment to Samoa and we look forward to working more closely and effectively with the government and other partners to strengthen the foundation of our partnership. In particular I would like to recognize the hard work of our Samoa country team, Maria Melei and Dahlia Loibl with support from our regional office in Suva, Fiji.
• On behalf of the Asian Development Bank, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the government of Samoa for its support in establishing this office. In particular, I wish to thank the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Samoa for facilitating this process especially making available the lovely office space which you will see in a moment. We also thank our lead local contractor, Sucon-Connexions, and all the other contractors, suppliers and artists for their excellent job on the refurbishment.
• We thank you again for your presence today and I am honored to hereby declare the ADB Samoa Pacific Country Office officially opened.
FAAFETAI TELE LAVA.
