Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegoai
Prime Minister

(pronounced "too-ee-lah-EH-pah sye-LAY-lay mah-lee-eh-lane-GO-eye")

"We put in place our fiscal and monetary policies which focused on ensuring that we have discipline in our own budgetary management. We are very confident that this will bring additional impetus to the economy."

In July 1997, the Independent State of Western Samoa officially dropped "Western" from the country's name, sharpening the contrast between its status as an independent nation and that of the U.S. Territory of American Samoa. Samoa lies in the center of the South Pacific, between longitudes 171 and 176 degrees west, and latitudes 13 and 15 degrees south. Its closest neighbors are Tuvalu and Kiribati to the north, American Samoa to the east, Tonga to the south, and Fiji to the southwest. New Zealand, farther to the southwest, is the largest nation with which Samoa has historically maintained close economic...