Transcript
Chinese-owned businesses are springing up around Samoa.
The village council of Moata'a is the third village this year to to move against them and stopped new investor James Zhuang from opening his store last month.
The prime minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi brought up the issue last week in his regular radio show on 2AP.
Our correspondent in Samoa Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia tuned in.
"The Prime Minister was suggesting, in his weekly radio programme last Friday, that maybe the government would make a change to existing legislation, meaning foreigners - including Asian business people - would be restricted to businesses that Samoans cannot afford to operate because of cost, and allow locals to focus on affordable ones like village shops."
The National University of Samoa's director of Samoa Studies Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea agrees with the need to protect locals.
"We can't invest in huge companies like construction or whatever. We can only invest in small shops and stuff like that so let us claim that as part of our own area of operation and leave the rest to people who can afford better."
Samoa's Chamber of Commerce chief executive Lemauga Hobart Va'ai says foreign investment is crucial to the country's development.
But he echoes the concern for local business in a written statement.
"Our concern is the level playing field. Every business that enters into Samoa must pay their taxes and comply with the legislation of our land. Any business is good business as long as it's competing on a level playing field and compliant with government."
The academic Leasiolagi says at a village level it's about autonomy and what's best for the village community.
"Each Village Council can decide on what is acceptable practice in their own village. This is based on the assumption that each Village Council is independent and different from the next one so a lot of villages have done it, not just about business people but also in other spheres of life."
Leasiolagi says Village Council bylaws may give the impression they're unfairly aimed at Chinese people because they're the most visual and prominent foreign group to set up businesses in recent times.
The Prime Minister says there are good and bad sides to Asian businesses operating in the country, but in the long run they're needed to create jobs and help boost the country's economy.
But there is some confusion over who decides where they can operate.
The Salelologa council banned Chinese owned businesses from customary land at the start of the year.
Leasiolagi questions whether bylaws should apply to government-owned land in a crucial port area.
"I think the government will intervene from time to time if the Village Councils do things which are anti-constitutional, and that's when the governments, and the courts of course, step in to intervene."
Foreign investment laws are currently under review and there are increasing calls in Samoa for a clearly articulated policy for foreign and local investors alike.
