A Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (M.S.M.E.) Development Policy has been officially launched by the caretaker Government.

The Policy was formulated by a small team of consultants in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour, Palladium Australia and the Akina Foundation New Zealand.

Funding came courtesy of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the Samoa Private Sector Development Programme.

Caretaker Minister of Commerce Industry and Labour, Lautafi Fio Selafi Purcell, delivered the keynote address at the launching of the policy on Thursday.

The policy recognises the importance of M.S.M.E. to the national economy and local livelihoods, this is why we have developed an M.S.M.E. Development Policy to focus efforts in developing Samoa M.S.M.E. sector over the next five years,” he said.

“For the past years the Government of Samoa has been committed to promoting and encouraging the development of M.S.M.E. sector in Samoa, it recognized the importance of the M.S.M.E. to our national economic and local livelihood, the policy formalizes needed government interventions in Samoa’s most progressive sectors to endure their responsiveness to the diversification and ongoing transformation of Samoa’s economy.”

The Minister added that the objective of the project is to develop Samoa’s small business entrepreneurs.

“The main purpose for the new project that has been launched is for the development of our very own small local business which is called medium-sized enterprises, helping out in every way so that they can achieve its goal and have the potential in helping out in the developing of Samoa in terms of income.

“Also there are job opportunity offers for our own local people to work in and come up with ideas informing up its business (medium sizes) so that our people can earn more money.”

Lautafi also thanked the New Zealand government through its Ministry of  Foreign Affairs and Trade for providing the funding under the Private Sector Programme.

Thank you also to all the public and private sectors as well as our developing partners, for the variable support in developing its first foundational M.S.M.E. Developing Policy for Samoa and therefore we continue with the support of our development partners.”

The Minister said the formulation of the policy was an achievement for the people to enable them to build on the foundation and to familiarise themselves with the legal requirements. 

It is estimated that there are 4,000 S.M.E. organisations in Samoa with an unknown number of micro-enterprises.