Country Overview
Samoa has achieved high levels of foreign investment in infrastructure projects and this is supported by a stable financial market. To capitalise on these strengths, the introduction of a published project pipeline could help focus investment and deliver better quality outcomes. Low GDP growth, the current lack of legal protections for shareholders and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may also inhibit Samoa’s ability to deliver future infrastructure projects and close the infrastructure gap.
See Full Overview Data
GDP per capita
4,225 USD
Population
0.2 million persons

Driver Overview

This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).

Driver
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader

Rank

Score /100

Best practice

51.1
-
73.0
-
59.7
-
74.1
-
62.8
-

Metric Overview

Strengths

Value of close infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship

Samoa has the highest value of closed infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship out of all the InfraCompass 2020 countries at 6.9%. A high value may reflect favourable trade conditions and lower barriers to foreign investment. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may impact international capital flows.

Financial stability

Samoa’s financial stability is satisfactory and equal to the Upper Middle Income Countries average. A stable financial system facilitates the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure assets and investors. The long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Registering property

In Samoa is takes 15 days to register a property, which is less than the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 21.7 days. As infrastructure projects often involve some transfer of property rights, an efficient registration process reduces project cost and risk.

Value of close infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship

Samoa has the highest value of closed infrastructure deals with foreign equity sponsorship out of all the InfraCompass 2020 countries at 6.9%. A high value may reflect favourable trade conditions and lower barriers to foreign investment. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may impact international capital flows.

Financial stability

Samoa’s financial stability is satisfactory and equal to the Upper Middle Income Countries average. A stable financial system facilitates the smooth flow of funds between infrastructure assets and investors. The long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a concern.

Registering property

In Samoa is takes 15 days to register a property, which is less than the Upper Middle Income Countries’ average of 21.7 days. As infrastructure projects often involve some transfer of property rights, an efficient registration process reduces project cost and risk.

Top Performing Metrics

Top Performing Metrics

This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100. 

Upper-middle income country average

Financial markets:
Financial stability

Opportunities to Grow

Published project pipeline

Samoa does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Shareholder governance

Samoa is not considered to have strong legal protections for shareholders. A failure to adequately enforce disclosure and transparency standards lowers the confidence of investors, hurting entities that fund or deliver infrastructure.

Long term GDP growth trend

Samoa has the lowest long-term GDP growth trend at 0.96% among the Upper Middle Income Countries which average 3.1%. Combined with the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this low growth trend may hamper Samoa’s ability to borrow and build more infrastructure.

Published project pipeline

Samoa does not currently publish an infrastructure pipeline of projects. The addition of an infrastructure pipeline could help provide infrastructure participants with a clear indication of prospective and confirmed infrastructure activity.

Shareholder governance

Samoa is not considered to have strong legal protections for shareholders. A failure to adequately enforce disclosure and transparency standards lowers the confidence of investors, hurting entities that fund or deliver infrastructure.

Long term GDP growth trend

Samoa has the lowest long-term GDP growth trend at 0.96% among the Upper Middle Income Countries which average 3.1%. Combined with the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this low growth trend may hamper Samoa’s ability to borrow and build more infrastructure.

Metrics to Improve

Metrics to Improve

This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.

For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.

Upper-middle income country average

Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend

Detailed Data

This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017. 

Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset. 

Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.

Governance Regulatory Permits Planning Procurement Activity Funding Financial
Driver
Score /100
Emerging Aspiring Contender Top performer Global Leader

Metric

Samoa

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

Source Link

28.2%

Recovery rate

The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.

18.5 (+0.1)
37.7

20.7%

Rule of law

World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.

66.5 (+1.2)
45.1

18.1%

Post-completion reviews

Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.

Yes
-

15.1%

Shareholder governance

Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).

0.0
40.2

12.8%

Political stability and absence of violence score

Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.

69.8 (-0.2)
46.1

5%

Infrastructure or PPP agency

Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.

Yes
-

Samoa

Upper-middle Income Countries Average

18.5 (+0.1)
37.7
66.5 (+1.2)
45.1
Yes
-
0.0
40.2
69.8 (-0.2)
46.1
Yes
-

Country Overview Data

Samoa has achieved high levels of foreign investment in infrastructure projects and this is supported by a stable financial market. To capitalise on these strengths, the introduction of a published project pipeline could help focus investment and deliver better quality outcomes. Low GDP growth, the current lack of legal protections for shareholders and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may also inhibit Samoa’s ability to deliver future infrastructure projects and close the infrastructure gap.
GDP per capita

4,225 USD

Population

0.2 million persons

GDP growth rate

3.4%

GDP per capita growth rate

4.1%

Gini coefficient

38.7 (0-100 worst)

Gross Government Debt

49.0% of GDP

Inflation rate

2.9%

Unemployment rate

8.5%

Urbanisation ratio

18.0% of total population