Samoa to change time zones and move forward by a day

The South Pacific island nation of Samoa is jumping time zones to go Back to the Future

Samoa's prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi wants the change in time zones to make it easier for the South Pacific island nation to do business with Australasia, according to reports.

He claims Samoa is, in effect, losing two business days every week with the region by being on the eastern side of the date line.

'In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week,' he remarked to government newspaper Sivali. 'While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane.'

Samoa, located approximately halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, is currently 11 hours behind GMT, making it one of the last places on the planet to see out the day.

The change in time zones, pencilled in for December 29, will make it among the first of the world's countries to greet the dawn.

While the time difference currently puts Samoa 21 hours behind eastern Australia and 23 behind New Zealand, the change would put it an hour ahead of Wellington and three ahead of Sydney.

The decision to move Samoa east of the international dateline was made 119 years ago to bring the island closer in line with major trading partners in the US and Europe.

'Our trading partners have dramatically changed since and today we do a lot more business with New Zealand and Australia, China and Pacific Rim countries such as Singapore,' observed Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

The prime minister has also suggested the time zone shift presents a potential tourism boost to Samoa, with visitors able to spend their birthday on the island, for example, before crossing the international dateline to American Samoa and celebrating all over again.

'So you can have two birthdays, two weddings and two wedding anniversaries on the same date - on separate days - in less than an hour's flight across - without leaving the Samoan chain,' he explained.

'We are looking forward to working with American Samoa on capitalising on the sort of tourism this change could garner.'