People in Samoa can now buy shares in the state-owned telecommunications company Samoatel, which is due to be privatised before the end of the year.
Talamua online news service reports that the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has launched the Unit Trust of Samoa.
The trust gives people the chance to invest in state-owned enterprises that are being privatised, something Tuilaepa says for successive governments have wanted for the past 30 years.
He says it's better that a major company such as Samoatel be owned collectively rather than falling to overseas ownership or into the hands of a few people with money.
The Unit Trust of Samoa, set up in 2008 within the Ministry of Finance, invests unit holders' funds in companies, fixed deposits, central bank securities, government bonds and other products generating a good return.
