What are the benefits of American Samoa gaining associate membership in the Pacific Islands Forum? That’s one of the questions which was posed to the team of Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga & Laapui Talauega Eleasalo Ale during the Women’s Coalition of American Samoa’s, “Meet the Gubernatorial Candidates Forum.”
Lemanu elaborated that as a Pacific island with the same issues and challenges faced by other island countries, it was important for American Samoa to have a voice in the decision making. He said American Samoa can help other island countries and vice versa. He revealed that for the future, the administration is looking at making American Samoa a regional hub for trade with island countries and membership in PIF would help achieve this goal. He also pointed out that PIF receives a lot of assistance from the United Nations and American Samoa can gain from this assistance.
In addition, it was better to speak as a group to push issues rather than being on your own.
Laapui explained that an immediate benefit would be in gaining access for US purse seiners to fishing grounds of countries such as Kiribati and Nauru.
Play Audio
Laapui also said that StarKist Samoa is still in need of workers to be able to meet increased orders. He said we can only bring so many workers from Samoa, and the cannery wants to reach out to other Pacific islands for workers.
The team of Vaitautolu Talia Iaulualo and Maefau Dr. Mary Lauagaia Taufetee was asked about their plans to improve the port. Vaitautolu said Pago Pago Harbor is one of American Samoa’s most valuable assets, and it was a must to develop the port for transshipment and also for tourism.
He said American Samoa can be a major transshipment point for the Pacific taking advantage of our connection to the US.
Vaitautolu said it’s hard to attract tourists from the mainland with the high cost of airfares, with the exception of eco tourists interested in our national park. He was impressed with frequent cruise ship visits and would like to see liners spend more time in the territory.
Play Audio
The team of Pulalii Nikolao Pula and Pulu Ae Ae Jr. fielded a question about their plan to improve health care. Pula said the emphasis should be on preventative health care, which is the responsibility of the Department of Health. He said they would like to see a return to visits by nurses in the homes to take care of basic health needs. He said while there’s a push to increase and expand dialysis services, they would like to see a reduction in dialysis patients. He also made comments about the current state of affairs at the LBJ Hospital.
Play Audio
