Two Vaoala village men have praised the Government for relaxing some aspects of its state of emergency (S.O.E.) orders, saying the decision will help to revive the local economy.

Civil servants Taulapapa Savaia and Tulima Taanoa said the relaxing of the S.O.E. orders should have a positive effect on those who rely on public transport to get to work.

“For the past six weeks in which our country was on lock down, a lot of our people suffered because of the loss of jobs, some had a hard time with transportation, some of the people that relied on their stores for survival had fewer sales than usual,” said Mr Taanoa.

“But with the lock down being lifted slowly, I can see our economy making little progress. I know it’ll take some time before we can recover from everything but I know we will get there.”

For Mr Savaia the decision by the Government to bring back public transport was a good call as even taxi services were becoming expensive.

“The Prime Minister made a good call to allow buses to work again, making it much easier for the people to travel from places to places, because taxis are very expensive these days,” he told Samoa Observer in an interview.

“Also with the workers or employees going back to their normal hours it’s really great, ferries going to Savai’i and the many other services that are now open to work is just amazing. I am sure that slowly we will be back on our feet again.”

The two men then made reference to the return of public buses and the number of commuters they are moving.

“We travel by bus because none of us have a car, and while I was on my way here I saw that so many people are using the bus service. It only tells that most of our people use the buses,” added Mr Savaia.

They are hoping that the Government will allow Samoa’s economy to recover without needing to reopen the borders to international flights.

“Samoa is coronavirus free and we hope it’ll stay like this. It can only stay like this if we stop bringing in travellers from overseas,” added Mr Taanoa.