The new Chief Executive Officer of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce Hobart Va’ai is ready to serve the private sector and its members and already has already laid down plans laid to do so.

In his interview with the Samoa Observer Mr. Va’ai said he is humbled by the new appointment.

“I’m excited about the opportunity and looking forward to serving the private sector of Samoa and the many members of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce,” he said.

Asked about his plans Mr. Vaai said his plans are basically in line with their strategic focus.

“It’s all about improving our services to the private sector and it is also aligned with some of the bigger and largest strategic issues abroad and here in the Samoa Chamber of Commerce.

“One of my key priorities that we undertake is our service delivery as a Secretariat to improve our role in advocating and lobbying issues of the private sector to the government.”

He also said that he would be looking at the general issues faced by our country such as Youth Unemployment, Agriculture and improvement on exporting products.

“Youth Unemployment is one of the big issues that I am looking forward to tackling and we have projects on the way that we are working on to address this issue and we are looking at taking that forward for the next five years,” he said.

“Another big area that we are looking at is Agriculture in building the capacity of our small local farmers and larger exporters micro businesses.

“We will be looking at improving trade because Samoa has some quality products and by improving these we are looking at how to fill that trade gap.

“We will be helping our local exporters by making them understand the issues and we will be working together with our donor partners in making this work.

“At the moment we have our project team to do more projects for our members and our economy.

“I am also inviting members of the private sector who are not members of the Chamber of Commerce to come and see us and join us.

“There are a lot of exciting things coming up over the next couple of years and so I invite them to come in.”

Mr. Va’ai is an accountant by profession. He is married with two children and he hails from the villages of Siusega, Faga and Sataua Savaii.

He is also the President of the Samoa Touch Rugby and the Treasurer for the Samoa Cancer Society.