Contrary to circulating worries that Faleolo International Airport was being sold, the General Manager of the Airport Authority, Magele Hoe J. Viali, has assured this is not true.
In an email in which he said he wished to set the record straight, he explained:
“In line with its SDS 2012-2016 Priority Area 3-Infrastructure Sector, Key Outcome ‘Efficient, Safe and Sustainable Transport System & Networks’, one of Government’s Strategic Areas is to ‘upgrade and maintain ports and airport terminal facilities, as well as other related services.
“To that end, the government has tasked Shanghai Construction Company to rebuild the Faleolo Terminal buildings, but NOT sell the airport to the Government of China as it has been (speculated)."
“The SDS 2008-2012 had also declared Government’s intent that the airport is one of its strategic assets, and will not be privatized or sold.
This intent has and will not be changed.”
In an interview yesterday, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi also assured that the worries the airport was to be sold were not true.
“I was shocked to see in the Observer people claiming the government is hiding its work to sell the airport to the Chinese,” he said.
“It’s a stupid thing to say and there is no such thing like that,” he added. “No country would sell its own airport.”
Tuilaepa, however, admitted that work was presently being done at the Faleolo terminal.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Suluimalo Amataga Penaia, concurred in an interview yesterday morning.
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He said Tuilaepa was right that refurbishment work was being carried out at the runway and terminal which was being partially funded by the Chinese government.
Said Suluimalo: “As far as I know, there is no information that the airport is being sold.”
He said the MNRE’s role in the project is in issuing of the development consent that allows the work to be undertaken at the airport.
“The development consent is for the new refurbishment of the airport,” he explained.
“It’s just an upgrade.”
However, he couldn’t confirm who “the second funding partner in the project is but claims it could either be the Asian Development Bank or World Bank” saying that the “MNRE has no direct role in that aspect.”
He pointed out that this was the direct responsibility of the Airport Authority.
However, in July last year it was reported that Tuilaepa had signed a design-and-build agreement with the Shanghai Construction Company from China, involving the construction of a new Faleolo Airport project.
It was said then that this particular project would include a two-storey terminal building, as well as upgrading the runway at a cost of 40million tala.
At the time, the Prime Minister said the government was negotiating with the construction company when to start construction.
But said it would have to be after the construction company had completed the second phase of the National Hospital at Moto’otua.
The second phase of the National Hospital the PM was referring to was completed and opened in December last year.
As for the airport upgrade project, it was also to include aero-bridges for departing and arriving passengers linked directly to the terminal.
The expected upgrade to the runway was required to allow the airport to cater to bigger planes and busier traffic.
In his press conferences at the time, the P.M. stressed that the upgrade to the airport was part of the government’s broad vision to transform Samoa into the next air hub of the Pacific Islands region.
It was reported that the Chinese Government had also been informed of two other main priority projects for Samoa including the planned Vaiusu Harbour, and a 15-storey government complex in Apia.
And in March last year, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors also approved a $U25million ($T75 million) grant to the Independent State of Samoa for the Samoa Aviation Investment Project.
This was to improve the safety and oversight of international air transport and associated infrastructure throughout the island nation.
The project is supposed to invest in key international aviation infrastructure, upgrade navigational and communication equipment, provide technical assistance and support capacity development for regulatory oversight, and operation and management of Samoa’s airports and regional aerodromes.
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