Samoa Starts Daylight Saving Time in 2009

Samoa will trial daylight saving time by moving its clocks one hour forward, starting from October 4 in 2009 until March 28 in 2010. The trial hopes to save energy, promote leisure opportunities and boost the nation’s economic, health and safety status.

Samoa is currently 11 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-11 hours). So when daylight saving begins, the clocks will move forward to UTC-10 hours. Samoa’s Cabinet recently approved the decision, which will be drafted into law.

Samoa’s Need for Daylight Saving Time

The new change to Samoa’s time was approved in a Cabinet meeting in late November in 2008. The meeting focused on a government report to introduce daylight saving time. According to this report, Samoa’s daylight saving will benefit the country by:

• Enhancing energy efficiency.
• Boosting leisure activities.
• Promoting public health and safety.
• Increasing the Samoa’s economic growth.

The daylight saving measure aims to respond to the need for national strategies to address the current worldwide crises in fuel and higher food costs. These increasing costs affected many Samoans in recent times, who are now calling for the government to respond by acting fast.

However, not all Samoan citizens agree that daylight saving time is the answer to helping those affected by these issues. Some say that the prices of commodities need to match worker’s earning power, especially as some people see that the cost of living outweighs people’s annual incomes.

Samoa’s Daylight Saving Trial in Action

Samoa’s daylight saving time will begin from the first Sunday of October (October 4) in 2009 until the last Sunday of March (March 28) in 2010. During the daylight saving period, the clocks will move one hour forward from UTC-11 hours to UTC-10 hours. This will occur so that the afternoons will have more daylight and the mornings will have less daylight.

It is anticipated that the clocks will move forward at midnight between Saturday and Sunday on the daylight saving start date, and then back by one hour at midnight between Saturday and Sunday on the end date. timeanddate.com is awaiting confirmation on this time from Samoa’s parliament so information will be updated when made available.

Brief Background

Samoa consists of 10 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, covers about 2860 square kilometers, and its estimated population is 188,540. Samoa’s economy has traditionally depended on development aid, private overseas family remittances, and agricultural exports. Tourism has also been a boosting factor to the economy. The daylight saving schedule aims to enhance Samoa’s economy.

Samoa’s parliament considered daylight saving time previously but it was never adopted. A proposal was made in 2007 but it was dismissed. However the government decided to revisit the daylight saving issue due to rising fuel costs and economic factors that affected the country. Initially, there were unconfirmed reports that the clocks would be moved by 30 minutes if the daylight saving plan would occur. However, it was recently confirmed that Samoa would move one hour forward when it implements the daylight saving schedule.