It has been a busy 2-3 months for the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Government with a number of issues coming to the fore, putting the spotlight on the Administration and its leadership.

In hindsight, we thought the controversy surrounding the weekly charter flights from China was the culmination of all that has been happening in recent weeks including the infamous Kite Runner saga. The alleged or in some cases blatant involvement of a handful of Cabinet Ministers and their offices only thickened the plot and raised a lot of questions among the public, many of which to this day remain unanswered. 

However, yesterday, the Government went into damage control following revelations of three companies that were unveiled in Hong Kong which had direct links to Samoa. The main story (Government denies Hong Kong business link) in yesterday’s edition of the Weekend Observer reported on these latest developments with the Government denying that it had ties to any of the aforementioned entities.

"The Government is aware that there has been a launch in Hong Kong of what is dubbed as a Samoa Stock Exchange, Samoa Digital Asset Exchange, and Oceania Special Economic Zone," the statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister reads. "Despite what has been circulating on social media, the Government of Samoa confirms that it has not endorsed or approved such an initiative."

Background checks by this newspaper on Friday with the country’s business registry under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Labour (M.C.I.L.) revealed that Oceania Blockchain Special Economic Zone Ltd, Samoa Digital Asset Exchange Ltd, and Samoa Stock Exchange Ltd have been registered as private companies on the country’s national business registry.

We can understand why there was a swift reaction from the Office of the Prime Minister on Friday – the names of the three companies are synonymous with business and trade ventures that are not even government policies as yet in Samoa. 

Let’s take a closer look at two of the business names. For example, what is a “special economic zone” which is part of the name of the business, Oceania Blockchain Special Economic Zone Ltd? Special economic zones or SEZs, according to a World Bank publication, are “geographically delimited areas administered by a single body, offering certain incentives (generally duty-free importing and streamlined customs procedures, for instance) to businesses which physically locate within the zone.” Samoa currently doesn’t have an official SEZ policy, though other countries in the region such as Papua New Guinea (PNG) have tried the concept and got mixed results. A foreign investor in an SEZ in PNG’s Madang Province set up a tuna cannery, but the promised benefits to the local population have been minimal, while social costs to the community have risen in recent years. 

What about Samoa Stock Exchange Ltd and does the name of the company point to future plans to set up a stock exchange for Samoa? With the country’s vulnerable and small economy, which is totally dependent on remittances and foreign aid, would Samoa have the local business activity to spur market capitalisation to the levels of Fiji and PNG (the only two nations in the region with local stock exchanges)?

And what about the reference to “blockchain” or “digital asset exchange” for a firm such as Samoa Digital Asset Exchange Ltd? Digital Assets, as defined by the U.S. government’s Internal Revenue Service, as “any digital representation of value which is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger”. Digital assets include convertible virtual currency and cryptocurrency, stablecoins and non-fungible tokens or NFTs. But hasn’t the Central Bank of Samoa (C.B.S.) put out a policy paper warning residents and the public of the dangers of trading with cryptocurrency?

Obviously, any of the initiatives highlighted above, need proper frameworks to be put in place as the Office of the Prime Minister intimated as well as a “cautious approach” by the Government.

"The Government is also taking a cautious approach with regard to any proposals related to Digital Assets (also known as virtual assets or cryptocurrency) Exchanges. This is given the global experiences of such exchanges being used in scams and money laundering.”

Yes, the Samoa Government should tread with care following these revelations. But the bigger question is what sort of action will Prime Minister, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa take if there are direct links established between these mysterious companies and a Minister or Ministers within her Cabinet and Government?

Next month will mark the FAST Government’s second anniversary in office and it has become clear to the public that a number of Cabinet Ministers have no regard for the systems and processes or strive to maintain the integrity of their offices. There are pressing issues currently facing the country and their conduct of late compels one to ask where their priorities are and whose interest they truly represent.