Discussions to establish the Technology and Innovation Park Initiative, which could make Samoa an information communication technology hub for the region, were held on Tuesday.

The stakeholder consultations were held at the Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi (T.A.T.T.E) Convention Center on Tuesday morning and was attended by representatives of various Government Ministries and businesses.

In his keynote address, the Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Su'a Poumulinuku Onesemo said the Government through this initiative is determined to provide a platform to not only showcase talented professional innovators but to develop Samoa to become a technology hub for the region.

He said the Ministry continues to drive the Government's agenda for become digitally transformed in all areas of the Government as well as in both the public and private sectors.

"I therefore urge you all to make use of this platform to deliberate and share your thoughts, exchange and transfer knowledge and understanding on how we can together achieve the outcome of this initiative," Su'a said.

The overall objective of the project is to facilitate an innovative ecosystem in Samoa by strengthening cooperation among academia, industry and the Government. The aim is to also attract research and development expertise from around the region to converge in Samoa, contributing to making Samoa a regional innovation hub.

The Samoa Innovation Technology Park is an opportunity to invest in technologies that have the strongest impact in the region. The park can look for research results that have commercial potential; conduct market research and due diligence; intellectual property research; and assessments on patents and licenses.

The proposed location of the project is at Vaivase-tai on a portion of land that is approximately 2.3 acres in size.

The M.C.I.T. Chief Executive Officer, Fualau Matau Matafeo said that talks of the initiative first commenced during the arrival of the Tui Samoa Cable in 2019

"It's a special place that could attract tech and communication companies to be established. So our Government chose the location where the Samoa College Hostel was located," Fualau said.

Fualau said that they hope there are incentives – whether its tax or duty or whatever sort of incentives that will be discussed – that can be offered to companies that would like to be established in Samoa.

"So the easiest example is Silicon Valley in America. It's a place where there are only I.C.T. companies and communications to be established," he said.

"Because of its good location, it's close to where our cable is, the area at the corner of the cable landing station. 

"Its important for these companies to be close to this location to reduce what is called latency so that there would be no gap in the international gateway and in terms of establishing their business.

"Today we have started the consultations and have invited all partners, Ministries, businesses, and companies to share their opinions if it is a good development for Samoa."