The Government’s commitment in private sector development is the purpose of appropriating $10million Tala in its Budget for FY2021/2022 with the purpose to assist the private sector in their efforts to combat the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic on their operations.

The Government launched the COVID19 Private Sector Assistance to all eligible businesses who were operating pre-COVID and are still operating to date.

A total of 6363 eligible businesses will receive the following allocation:

 Sole Traders and Partnerships: $1500/per business license/activity and should they have more than 4 businesses, only 4 will be funded, that is, maximum of $6,000.00 for a sole trader or partnership with at least 4 business licenses.

 Companies: $1800/business license/activity and should they have more than five businesses only 5 will be given the grant to, that is, maximum of $9,000.00 for a company with at least 5 business licenses.

The Assistance is administered by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour and will be working together with the Ministry of Customs and Revenue, Ministry of Finance and the Samoa Bureau of Statistics.

All eligible businesses will need to fill out an Application that can be uplifted from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour and can also be downloaded from the Ministry website at www.mcil.gov.ws.

The eligible businesses also are required to submit copies of their Business Licenses for year ended 2020 and 2021 together with the Application Form to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour for assessment and approval before funds are disbursed by the Ministry of Finance.

All businesses also are required to report back after one (1) month of receiving their grant on how their fund was utilized.

The businesses that are excluded from this Assistance are those in the Tourism Industry that are operating accommodation services, tour operators and travel agents.

The Tourism Industry Fund of $5million Tala that was launched in late 2021 cover these operators and the reason for their exclusion from this Assistance.

Worker Associations Grant in recognizing also the contribution of Workers to our economic developments, the Government also launched on this day the Worker Associations Grant to a total of $20,000.00.

The Grant will be directed towards work associations sitting on the Samoa National Tripartite Forum (SNTF).

The Forum has been a longstanding platform for discussion of national labour and employment policies, legislation and strategies.

Using the principles of social dialogue and tripartite consultation, representatives of Government, employers and workers are able to have their voices heard in the development of important labour and employment matters to ensure that all constituents are sharing in the fruits of economic development.

Therefore, the members on this forum are positioned to ensure issues important to workers are addressed across all occupations including private and public sector, and specifically nursing and maritime workers.

The Grant is allocated for the following (4) Worker Associations: Samoa Workers Congress; Public Service Association; Samoa Nurses Association; Samoa Seafarers and Maritime Association and each of these Worker Association will receive a grant of $5,000.00.

This grant will be an annual fixture to support Worker Associations with their administrative costs and importantly planning of each recipient in rolling out their respective programs