Samoa's first female Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, has described 2021 as a challenging year for the country but says it is more reason for the country to come together.
"As in any crisis, it becomes all the more necessary to move forward together as a nation, and as strong, resilient people to reinforce the confidence to cooperate and collaborate towards a future we want," she said.
In her first New Year's address as prime minister, Fiame said, "we have accepted the uncertainties that remain but we are willing to usher in a new dawn to revisit our priorities and to listen attentively to emerging demands for a better quality of life for us all".
She exuded confidence in the ability of Samoans to overcome difficulties.
"We are poised to welcome and encourage the innovation of our people and their creativity to generate solutions. We have proven crisis-resilient potential," she said.
Samoa's prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa Photo: Samoa Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Looking at the year ahead the prime minister said the Cabinet though new, is committed to delivering people-centred priorities and encourage empowerment of communities.
She said following approval for the 2021-2022 budget, the government moved quickly with implementation in all sectors of the economy but with the primary focus on community and social development.
She highlighted that government's financial assistance to the tourism sector, business community, and a number of employees' associations to provide continuing support to help address the impacts of Covid-19.
Prime Minister Fiame said the government was keen to ensure that job offerings through the seasonal worker scheme of New Zealand and the labour mobility programs of Australia were made available to all communities on an equitable basis.
She pointed out that Starkist of American Samoa continued to recruit workers for its tuna cannery operations.
"This year alone has seen more than 5000 workers utilise these opportunities," she said.
Also highlighted in the PM's speech was the one million Tala project for district developments which the PM said was on target.
The prime minister paid tribute to frontline workers involved in safeguarding Samoa from Covid-19, noting it has been almost two years since the State of Emergency was declared in the wake of the pandemic.
"So much work has been delivered to secure our borders, facilitate numerous flights and support traveller mobility for over 9000 residents into and out of the country, expedite vaccines access and undertaking mass vaccination campaigns, and coordination of emergency responses through partnerships," Fiame said.