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.
1. 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.
2. 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.

3. 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.