SAMOA, September 20 - Ministry of Works, Transport & Infrastructure

21th September 2020; We wish to respond to an article published by the Samoa Observer on 20th September 2020, with the headline “Chinese company warned over construction breaches”.

The letter dated 09 January 2020 to Shanghai Construction Group is a standard procedure letter of the Planning and Urban Management Agency (PUMA), a division of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (MWTI). 

Such a letters is part of PUMA’s usual compliance monitoring and enforcement works for development consents issued to developers, which in this case is Shanghai Construction Group. 

The Ministry wishes to confirm that remedial actions have already been undertaken by Shanghai Construction Group since the issuance of the mentioned letter early this year.

Shanghai Construction Group responded within the timeframe specified by PUMA and the remedial actions undertaken satisfactorily addressed the concerns of PUMA. 

Therefore no further enforcement action under the PUM Act was required.

Furthermore, the additional works requested by the Ministry from the Huizhou Municipality was to ensure the effective functioning and usage of the Friendship Park when completed. 

Some of these additional works have already been completed.

We continue to work in close collaboration with our donor partner and Shanghai Construction Group, to ensure the successful completion of the Friendship Park project.   

We also wish to note that our office never received a request for comments from Samoa Observer as mentioned in their article.

September 22, 2020