Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says he does not think the country will be affected a lot by the departure of UK from the European Union.
“Our assistances and grants come from the EU altogether and while Britain was a superpower within the EU, don’t forget France and Germany are also a part of it as well, “he said.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa attended a successful European Union meeting in Belgium and another in Sweden last week, where he signed a $60m Tala grant to further complete the Samoa water pipeline works in Savai’i.
It was at these two meetings that the Prime Minister said he was assured that Samoa isn’t the only country trying to end certain challenges.
“While I was in Belgium, we discussed food security and I realized that the fight against non-communicable diseases which we face and are pushing so many programmes to discourage people from eating unhealthy and unbalanced diets is also occurring in the bigger countries.”
“The fact is having something to eat but is unhealthy is not proper food security and our people are exactly the ones unconsciously having that problem. Some families love to eat those noodle soups without knowing the amount of salt in these foods,” he said.
“So while I was there the emphasis on food security and as well as clean water hence the signing of the grant, has made our current push even more important since it is a global problem,” he added.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa said despite the ongoing developments in the EU, Samoa continues to receive the support of the EU with new long term plans set in place especially with the shared focus we have in common.