ROLE MODEL
▶ Samoan ambassador trashes debt trap allegation, praises Chinese efficiency
Editor’s Note:
Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Papua New Guinea (PNG), Brunei and the Philippines from Thursday to Wednesday. During his stay in PNG, Xi will meet leaders from the Pacific island countries that have diplomatic ties with China, Xinhua reported. Before Xi’s meeting with these Pacific island countries’ leaders, Global Times reporters Xie Wenting and Bai Yunyi (GT) interviewed Samoan Ambassador to China, Tapusalaia Terry Toomata (Toomata), on key issues including China’s aid to the Pacific island countries and its presence in the region. Samoa is a beautiful island nation in the central South Pacific.
GT: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Papua New Guinea (PNG) this November and meet several leaders of the South Pacific region in Moresby. What do you expect from Xi’s visit and the meetings? What will it bring to the South Pacific region?
Toomata: China is one of our closest developing partners, and likewise for some of the other Pacific island countries. So, this is a very important visit and similarly the meetings are very significant. It is the second meeting that President Xi will hold with Pacific island countries’ leaders since the 2014 meeting in Nadi, Fiji. It will be a great opportunity to have another meeting with President Xi and Pacific leaders to talk about strengthening relations.
GT: There are many Chinese projects in Samoa. How do you evaluate China’s presence in your country? Do you think these projects are for mutual benefits? Do you think these projects will put other countries in a “debt trap” and the investments will be used for infiltrating into other nations as claimed by some Western countries and media outlets? Toomata: Samoa’s relations with China go back a long way, long before the bilateral relationship was established formally in 1975. We have a long history of people-to-people relations with China, going back to the late 18th century when the first Chinese arrived in Samoa. So, we are quite familiar with the Chinese connections and there are lots of people in Samoa who have Chinese ancestors.
I understand what you have asked is about some people’s anxiety with China’s presence in the Pacific and in Samoa. But China has been in the Pacific since the mid-1970s when it first started developing relations with Samoa and Fiji in 1975. So, it is not new, and it’s not that China appeared there last year or the year before. China has been around for quite a while. So, this anxiety among other countries is unfounded.
China’s infrastructure projects are normally visible to many people. China’s development advantage and strength is infrastructure that some of our donors don’t have. Some of them focus on areas like IT, HR, health and education but the strength of Chinese assistance is in infrastructure. And normally, some of our donors cannot undertake these projects. So, they complement each other when the Chinese help focuses on roads, stadiums, buildings and things like that. It complements what the other donors can’t do. So, it is not a real problem for us. We welcome the Chinese assistance and they have been one of our donor-partners over the years.
Also, debt trap is not a problem for Samoa. It is really up to the country to weigh on whether they have the ability to repay the loans for these projects. If they do not have the financial capacity to do so, they should not be asking the Chinese government to undertake such projects.
GT: Countries in the region differ over their attitudes toward China’s presence. For example, during the Pacific Islands Forum held in September, Nauru tried to stop the Chinese delegation from entering the country and obstructed their speech. In your opinion, why did this incident happen? Do you worry this kind of difference would worsen and have a negative impact on the region? Toomata: It’s a pity that the incident happened. It should not happen and has never happened before. I hope it will not happen again because we should not treat one of our dialogue partners this way. All dialogue partners should be welcomed to attend the meetings in the Pacific regardless of who is hosting the forum. That is an international practice and should be observed by host countries.
GT: China is not the only country which offers financing services and assistance to Samoa. Do you observe any difference between the pattern of Chinese aid and the aid of other countries, such as the US and Australia?
Toomata: Yes. For China, Japan and the EU, they do the major projects, major infrastructure projects. So, they turn to focus on those areas and they reply favorably to our proposals for those big projects. In terms of the Chinese assistance in projects like school buildings, stadiums, hospitals, airports, these are very important big projects that other donors cannot undertake or do not look into. Others focus on areas like education, health and agriculture. So, they complement each other and some of the donors understand that what Chinese do complements what Australia, New Zealand or other countries do. Japan also undertakes some big projects like ports and terminals.
GT: From your perspective, based on current developments and plans of your nation, what kind of Chinese enterprises or investment will be more welcomed by Samoa?
Toomata: With implementation of the Belt and Road initiative, we would like to see more development in the areas of tourism and agriculture that are the key projects, on which we would like to focus. China has a very huge outbound tourists market. We would like to see more Chinese come to the Pacific and Samoa to visit, and that is why we want to build tourism infrastructure like hotels, resorts as well as agriculture. Tourism is one of the main sources of income for the country in terms of the GDP. About 20 percent of the GDP comes from tourism, so we would like to push more tourism projects.
GT: As the ambassador, what will be your priorities to enhance the bilateral relationship between China and Samoa? Toomata: I will continue to push and strengthen our relations with China. We would like to see more private sector engagement, more private sector companies from China investing in Samoa and other Pacific island countries, which is very good for us.
At the moment, most of the engagement is in government projects. But more private sector engagement and investment from China will boost the sector and the consumer market.
GT: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up. Do you think Samoa can learn something from the reform and opening-up? Toomata: We have learned a lot and I’ve learned a lot since I have been here. I’ve been the Ambassador to China for almost 10 years. Certainly it’s the way Chinese people work. They work hard and do not depend on others. In many countries, there are roadblocks to implementing plans, but in China when the leadership lays out plans, everybody implements. Then you get things done. That is the good thing I’ve learned here. You get things done in a fast and efficient way. Even in our country, it takes a while to implement things.
The roads in China are excellent, even in rural areas. It is amazing how China has moved ahead in 40 years. A lot of people who come here for the first time are surprised by the development.