Samoa, which changed its name from Western Samoa in July 1997, is a group of 9 islands situated in the South Pacific, east of the International Date Line. At various stages, it has been administered by Britain, Germany and New Zealand. Samoa, where English is the language of government and commerce, became independent in 1962 and retains a parliamentary form of government. Since independence, it has developed into a politically stable nation. The local infrastructure in Samoa is presently very sound and improving continually. A number of leading accounting firms have offices in Samoa and there are numerous legal practices. At present there are three retail banks in Samoa. Another important feature is the presence of a Chinese Embassy which is particularly helpful when legalising or apostilling documents required for transactions and business in mainland China.
Samoa's offshore corporate legislation was originally introduced in the late 1980s and was based on Cook Islands legislation but now includes numerous enhancements, making it more user-friendly to suit the requirements of the Asian market. Of particular note are the following:
(i) Chinese character names (and other foreign languages) are permitted, in addition to English names on the Certificates of Incorporation, in a properly supervised manner;
(ii) Documents may be filed in any language. We have developed a Chinese language MAA to make Samoan companies even more appealing to Chinese language jurisdictions;
(iii) Companies may pay their licence fees for 5, 10 or 20 years in advance and substantial discounts are offered to companies that have elected to take up this offer. |
