Description

The technical assistance (TA 4712) to promote the economic use of customary land was agreed by ADB and the Government of Samoa during programming discussions in 2003 and was listed in the Samoa Country Strategy and Program Update 2004‰-2006. It follows on from exploratory work prepared under component 4 of the ADB Small Business Development Project, and the associated technical assistance for capacity building of financial and business advisory intermediaries which aimed to "improve the policy and Iegislative environment for small business development". TA 4712 established and supported a working group on the economic use of customary land with representatives of Government, the private sector, and the community which submitted a report to Cabinet recommending activities to promote the economic use of customary land. The main role of the TA was to assist the Government of Samoa to implement the Cabinet's decisions in approving the report.