Samoa - Future trends

During the 1990s Samoa's economy experienced several blows related to natural disaster, but at the turn of the century, there is optimism about future development. The fishing industry has grown rapidly in recent years with further potential apparent. Tourism has grown slowly but steadily, and to some extent the degree to which this expands may depend not only on the government's promotion of it but also on the public's attitude to the desirable scale of the industry. The agricultural sector is likely to continue to be affected by weather, disease, and fluctuating world prices, but probably will continue as an important source of export income, even if the product mix changes. For many years there have been predictions that migrant remittances will eventually slow down as expatriates become more settled in their countries of residence, but so far this does not seem be the case. Though international aid payments are being reduced in some cases, most small Pacific countries—such as Samoa—have managed to attract high per capita levels of aid, and this ought to continue into the foreseeable future.