2008

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SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS, 2008

At the beginning of the 2008 term, the Chamber’s Board of Directors established 5 working committees to try and achieve the objectives outlined in the Chamber’s Planning and Objectives for 2008. The newly formed committees were:

• Membership
• Government Relations
• Canneries
• Young Professionals
• Environment

With the exception of the Canneries Committee, all of the others were very active during 2008, and made meaningful contributions to the affairs of the Chamber. .

The Chamber was involved in the following matters:

1. Private Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). The Chamber established it’s commercial arm – the Private Economic Advisory Council. The purpose of this organization is to become directly involved in commercial projects. Projects immediately engaged include Marina Development, assistance with Tourism Development through establishment of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau (ASVB) and other commercial investment projects;
2. Economic Advisory Council (EAC). The Chamber President was invited to co-chair the Governor’s Economic Advisory Council;
3. Minimum Wage Escalation. The Chamber testified and commented in various capacities and venues on the minimum wage issue, including before the Fono, and the special Congressional Delegation sent to American Samoa. We provided our predictions about the effects and viability of the canneries with the escalator clause in the bill remaining in place. The canneries are now showing signs of the problems we anticipated;
4. Environment Committee. The Chamber established the Environment Committee, to encourage the adoption of recycling, power saving campaigns, use of bio-degradable products and other policies and programs which will encourage environmental thinking;
5. Arts Festival Committee. Forums for the general public. No sign of on-going promotion of the territory following the success of the festival.
6. Samoa Association of Manufacturers and Exporters. The Chamber participated in the annual trade fair for the Samoa Association of Manufacturers and Exporters to promote local companies wishing to establish better trade relations with Samoa (primarily joint venture with dress designers and handicraft producers);
7. Young Professionals Committee. The Chamber established a Memorandum of Understanding and established membership with the New Zealand Institute of Management to provide a forum for mentoring and developing local young business professionals;
8. Annual Farmer’s Market. The Chamber teamed up with BlueSky to promote local agricultural products with the target of substituting local products for imported ones;
9. American Samoa Visitor’s Bureau (ASVB). The Chamber has continued to aggressively push for the establishment of a quasi-governmental agency to take over the promotion of tourism. This bureau would have the freedom to aggressively pursue tourism on a par with other tourist destinations. The American Samoa Visitors Association, a separate industry organization which had been pushing this idea for a number of years, joined forces with the Chamber in 2007 and became a part of it. The Chamber provided comment and counsel for the Governor during the formation of the legislation. As 2008 began, the Governor endorsed the proposed legislation, and the Chamber provided testimony to the Fono regarding the proposed legislation (both the House and Senate). By the end of 2008 the ASVB had been approved by the Fono, and the existing Office of Tourism had been dissolved. Two of the positions on the ASVB’s Board will come from the ASVA (now part of the Chamber). Unfortunately, as of the end of 2008, the Fono had still not approved the Governor’s recommended appointments to the ASVB’s new Board, and so there has been a delay in actually starting up the new organization.
10. Business Awards Night. This was one of the highlights of the entire year. In one of the most well attended business functions this island has seen, the Chamber hosted over 80 local business attendees to witness the presentation of awards in 6 categories of businesses;
11. School Lunch Program Bidding. The Chamber aggressively championed the positions of local businesses regarding the new arrangements for School Lunch Program bids. Changes in the wording of the contracts would have basically eliminated local businesses, in favor of large stateside concerns who are attempting to enter the bidding. The changes eventually made are better, but still not completely satisfactory in favor of local vendors.
12. Price Surveillance of Food and Commodities. The Chamber provided assistance to the Government Task Force on Price Surveillance of Food and Commodities, which tracks the effects of various economic factors on local consumer prices.
13. Election Information. The Chamber hosted meetings for the business community with each of the gubernatorial and congressional candidates. Unfortunately, none of these were very well attended, exposing an embarrassing amount of apathy on behalf of the business community.
14. New Customs Inspection Procedures. An unexpected and ill-founded mandate to completely change the way that customs inspections are performed was dropped almost without warning onto the business community. The Chamber could immediately see several major flaws with this otherwise well-intentioned ruling, and provided counseling to the Governor and the Treasurer, and testimony to the Fono (both House and Senate) on the new customs inspection procedures. Unfortunately, the new procedures went into effect anyway, and the problems and losses of income we had predicted did in fact occur. A compromise was eventually reached on the procedures, and they are almost back to normal.
15. Heavy Equipment and Appliance Taxes. A proposed new tax on heavy equipment and new appliances was proposed by the Senate to raise funds for the establishment of a commission to investigate alternative energy. The proposed new tax was killed.
16. Alternative Energy. Testimony was provided before the Fono (both House and Senate) on alternative energy issues. There has been no further progress in this area by either the Fono or the government.
17. Engagement with Regional Chambers. The Chamber engaged in contact and discussions with various other regional Chambers, including the Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce, the Asia Pacific Islands Business Council, the New Zealand Pacific Business Council and the American Chamber of Commerce (New Zealand).
18. Government Relations. The Chamber maintained regular meetings with the Governor throughout 2008, discussing a wide variety of topics, and maintaining a dialog of inclusion for the local business community.
19. Chamber Website. The Chamber’s website was substantially modernized and upgraded during 2008, adding new sections for posting monthly board meeting minutes and updating several other areas. The improvements made the site a better resource for both members and casual visitors.
20. General Accounting Office (GAO) Comments. The Chamber was invited by the United States General Accounting Office to meet and discuss the possibility of revising American Samoa’s Court system.
21. Department of the Interior (DOI) Fellows Program. The Chamber briefed the nominated fellows, and provided input into the DOI computer communications program.
22. Media Exposure During 2008. The Chamber had a great deal of positive media exposure during 2008. There have been almost weekly comments and write-ups of Chamber events for Samoa News and 93KHJ Radio news. In addition, the Chamber provided input for and was featured in a Pacific Magazine article on the status of the economy, and there were frequent comments to New Zealand and Australian Pacific programs.
23. Nazareth House. As 2008 closed, the dreadful plight of the only facility on the island to provide hospice and elderly care was made known to the Chamber. Because of world wide economic constraints, the Sisters of Nazareth, who currently run and subsidize the operations of Nazareth House, will be forced to leave American Samoa. The Chamber, with help from other service clubs and the media, helped organize a telethon and other events which hoped to raise at least $100,000 to allow Nazareth House to continue operating in 2009, until a more permanent funding solution can be found.
24. Other Chamber Meetings During 2008. The Chamber met formally or informally with a number of other organization on behalf of their membership, including:

• Representatives from Brigham Young University Hawaii;
• New Zealand High Commission for Samoa;
• Australian High Commission for Samoa;
• President of the Pacific Islands Development Bank (PIDB);
• Pacific Trade Expo organizers in New Zealand;
• The Philippine Counsul General for Hawaii;
• Department of the Interior (DOI) representatives;
• US Department of Agriculture Rural Development representatives;
• Investors for the proposed call center;
• US Department of Labor Trade and Apprenticeship Program (for ASCC);
• BSB/ERA Design and Planning (for tourism development)