A new international port of entry at Asau, on Samoa’s biggest island of Savaii could be ready within two years.
“Funding to widen and deepen the Asau channel has been secured,” Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in a statement.
He said relevant government officials have been tasked with getting the Asau Harbour Development off the ground.
“To that effect, elevating Asau channel to international standards spells economic benefits for the Big Island and for the country.”
In recent years the government had been talking with American Samoa's StarKist Samoa cannery about plans to develop the channel and the dock as a location for a possible fish processing plant and transhipment facility, but no deal was ever concluded.
Tuilaepa said that the potential for investors to lease land for business developments and tourist facilities cannot be discounted.