Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi
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| Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 23 November 1998 |
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| President | Malietoa Tanumafili Tufuga Efi |
| Preceded by | Tofilau Eti Alesana |
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| Born | 14 April 1945 Lepa, Samoa |
| Political party | HRPP |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi (born 14 April 1945 in Lepa, Samoa) is the current Prime Minister of Samoa. He is an economist and was the first Samoan to get a masters degree . He used to work for the European Economic Community and Coopers & Lybrand and was elected to the Samoan parliament in 1980.
Tuilaepa was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance under Tofilau Eti Alesana following the Human Rights Protection Party's return to power after the coalition government of Vaai and Tupua. For a while he was both Prime Minister and Minister of Finance after Tofialu stepped down from the Premiership. However, following a Cabinet reshuffle after the following elections in which he led the HRPP for an additional term, Tuilaepa relinquished the post of Minister of Finance to Misa Telefoni Retzlaff who also became the new Deputy Prime Minister.
The official reason given for Tuilaepa's relinquishment of the Ministry of Finance was that it was due to the amount of responsibility and work involved being both Prime Minister and Minster of Finance and to do the job properly required a full time Minister. However, it is widely recognised within government circles that it was probably also due to appease the ambitious Misa.
While Tuilaepa was largely responsible for initiating major financial reforms in the early 1990s. As Prime Minister he has continued to push for and to aid such reforms where possible. As both Minister of Finance and Prime Minister he has shown a consistent attempt towards restrained and responsible fiscal management.
[edit] Sporting aspirations
Prime Minister Tuilaepa competed for his country at the 2007 South Pacific Games in the sport of target archery.[1] In participating in the Games, the Prime Minister became the first elected leader to represent his country at a multi-sport event.
Having taken up the sport only 5 months prior to the Games, Tuilaepa was ranked second in Samoa in the combined bow discipline. The Prime Minister's son was also a reserve team member.[1]
On day 10 of the Games, Tuilaepa won a silver medal in the mixed recurve team play event.[2]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Samoa PM draws bow for his country from the New Zealand Herald, 18 August 2007
- ^ "Samoa PM wins archery silver", ABC Radio Australia. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
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| Preceded by Tofilau Eti Alesana |
Prime Minister of Samoa 1998 – present |
Incumbent |
