Foreign barbecue sellers had been plying their trade for a while on the streets of Apia before the Samoa Observer published a story in yesterday’s edition that alerted local authorities to the illegal trade. 

In fact, we are all aware of the local laws that prohibit foreigners from engaging in business that is restricted to Samoan citizens. But many of us disregarded them and were even happy to partake with our few talas on a daily basis, in exchange for the sumptuous barbecued meat that the foreigners were cooking and selling.

An article (Local vendor to report foreigner) in yesterday’s edition of the Samoa Observer reported on the activities of a Vietnamese national, who allegedly used the business license of a local Samoan businesswoman to run four separate barbecue outlets in different locations in the Samoan capital.

The businesswoman, Taaitulagi Chung Kwan told this newspaper that she plans to report the Vietnamese national to the Ministry of Customs and Revenue (MCR) for using her name and business license without her consent.

“I was planning to go tomorrow (Thursday) to report him to the Ministry of Revenue because he is still operating his business without any license and worse he’s using my name,” said Taaitulagi. “I understand it’s against the law hence why I’m going to report him but I have been informed that he will be deported back on 20 November.”

It is great that the businesswoman is now taking action. But these developments also raise questions about the enforcement of laws pertaining to restricted business activities in recent years, because these foreign nationals have been sighted on various occasions engaging in these activities for over a year.

We are surprised that they have been able to get away with their illegal practices without the local authorities intervening, consequently enabling them to take away business and entrepreneurship opportunities from the locals. 

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Labour (MCIL) has a list of the “restricted activities” on its website, which are reserved for Samoan citizens only. According to the ministry, “Foreign investors and companies with shareholders, directors, and or employees are not allowed to engage in any of these reserved activities”. The ministry has listed the reserved activities as follows: (i) Bus transport services for the general public (ii) Taxi transport services for the general public (iii) Rental vehicles (iv) Retailing of general food items (v)  Sawmilling and (vi) Traditional elei garment designing and printing.

While it is great that the ministry allocated a page on its official website to advise the public of the reserved and or restricted business activities, the MCIL should have gone one step further and added a toll-free number or email address on the same website page to enable members of the public to report cases of malpractice. 

But expecting the public to access the ministry’s page for this information, in order to report cases of malpractice, is at most times a futile exercise when the public doesn’t seem to care. This is why having an enforcement unit within the MCIL to conduct impromptu checks of businesses operated by foreigners is important. If such a unit already exists within the ministry then they are not proactive enough, otherwise, they would have already sighted the different cases of the alleged abuse of the restricted business list.

The other practice of foreigners getting married to local women – who then use their spouses to apply for local business licenses bypassing the strict requirements normally imposed on foreign investors – also continues unabated. All too often the motives of foreign businessmen are known to the local authorities, but officials just go ahead anyway and process the submitted paperwork without digging further into the background of the foreign investors.

The current Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) administration should be wary of the long-term implications of allowing these illegal practices to continue. The last thing you would want is for the citizens of Samoa to become passengers on their own land and miss out on the wealth-creation opportunities, which are paramount to the future success and prosperity of this nation.