Western Sahara Economy

Economy

Western Samoa remains predominantly agricultural and village communities maintain an economy base on farming and fishing. Much of the cultivated land is devoted to subsistence crops such as yams bananas breadfruit and pawpaws. More than half of the land is too rugged for agricultural use. Pigs and poultry are the principal livestock. There is little diversification in agricultural exports with coconut products accounting for over 70 percent of total exports production. The islands have few resources and no deposits of commercially valuable minerals. Back-to-back cyclones devastated the country in 1991 and 1992. In addition a fungus blight in 1993 destroyed Western Samoa's major export crop taro root. Various methods to overcome the blight have mostly met with failure. In 1991 the Japanese company Yazaki set up an auto wiring component assembly plant in Apia which now employs 2700 Samoans. Other than this plant however no other large-scale manufacturing concern has established in Western Samoa. On a smaller scale there are two regional soft drink and beer bottling plants.

The first McDonald's Restaurant in this South Pacific region opened in Apia in 1996. Import payments have risen steadily in response to growing public demand for consumer products. Due to limited export production the 1995 import to export dollar ration was over 10 to 1. Large-scale developmental aid is received from New Zealand Australia Japan PRC and the EU. The internal transportation system depends largely on roads and island- to-island ferries. Daily intra-island ferry service is available as well as once-weekly ferry service to American Samoa. The principal port is located at Apia Harbor. Savaii and Upolu island each has a small airport which services Twin Otter flights between the two islands and to American Samoa. Faleolo International Airport located on Upolu receives international flights from the U.S. (Hawaii & Los Angeles) Australia New Zealand Fiji and Tonga. In 1995 the Western Samoan Government designated tourism as its top economic objective.