Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The ASG Commerce Department and their chief statistician, Meleisea Vai Filiga have joined the U.S Census Bureau in urging businesses to respond to the 2022 Economic Census survey for American Samoa, as the outcome will — among other things — provide data on existing industries in 2017 versus 2022.

Meleisea, who is also AS-DOC’s assistant deputy for the Statistics & Analysis Division — made the call during a Samoa News interview Tuesday with U.S Census Bureau officials — Economic Census Assistant Survey Director, Staff Chief, Robert Nusz and Economic Census Assistant Survey Director, Mike Sprung.

The interview at the DOC Office, at the Fagatogo Market Place, occurred at a time when the third cruise ship for 2023 was anchored at Pago Pago Harbor. The tourism industry was seriously impacted with COVID-19 restriction between 2020 and 2022 and cruise ships sailing to Pago Pago only opened up at the start of 2023.

Samoa News asked the Census Bureau officials whether the impact on tourism —  including cruise ships —  from COVID-19 restrictions due to closure of American Samoa’s borders, would be part of the economic census, or mentioned in the final report.

Many businesses were impacted in 2022 when businesses were closed, and employees laid off, after the community spread of COVID-19 was first recorded in late February last year. And several businesses, including two hospitality industry vendors, have told Samoa News that the COVID-19 restrictions and the impact on their businesses should be part of any federal study.

Responding to Samoa News questions during the interview, Sprung said it’s “hard to tell what exactly the impacts of COVID were... since we only do this every five years. And all we have to compare to is the 2017 statistics” for the economic census.

However, “the good thing about us collecting the data for 2022 — why it’s important for everyone to respond, is that, it’s going to give [us] a good look at the differences before — which is 2017 and after in 2022 — what the impact of COVID may have been,” said Sprung.

“Of course we can’t say that everything that has changed is because of COVID. But the tourism industry, I think, is one of the many where we will be able to draw conclusions, that it was not there in 2022 because of COVID,” he pointed out.

Meleisea echoed Sprung’s statement and pointed out that the statistics gathered will provide “what are new industries that emerged, what industries are no longer in the economy” between 2017, the last economic census, and 2022.

Meleisea said the census also helps track changes in industry activities, as it may have been in existing in 2017 but no longer in operation in 2022. However, there may be new industry activity since 2017, he said.

“That’s why its so important for business to respond to the census,” Sprung added and explained that: “Understanding the structure of the economy on the island, helps the [ASG] Department of Commerce and other agencies here, know where they need to provide more support and where they can help advocate for businesses on the island.”

On behalf of AS-DOC and the Census Bureau, Meleisea is “urging the business community to please support the 2022 Economic Census. We certainly need the help of the business community to respond.”

“And from previous experience, there’s always some reluctance by the business community to provide [a response] because of confidentiality issues,” he said and remind businesses that, “this is a federal census. And the federal [govt] takes confidentiality matters very seriously.”

He cited the federal code that protects the information collected under the federal confidentiality law, and again urged the business community to participate in this process.

Without an annual survey, Meleisea said this census carried out every five years provides the main source of information on the economy. And therefore it’s important that businesses participate.

AS-DOC is working in collaboration with the Census Bureau on the economic census, and is meeting this week with local officials and media outlets to raise public awareness while Nusz and Sprung were on island, before their expected departure last night.

Meleisea and his team will take over after the Census Bureau officials leave and continue to provide local support to businesses with questions.

“We really value the partnership with the Department of Commerce. We direct the responders to call here (AS-DOC) for assistance,” Nusz said, adding that the Census Bureau provided training for AS-DOC personnel on Tuesday “on the electronic reporting software so that they’ll be able to help anybody having issues with it.”

“Then we’ll call the businesses that don’t report after the due date — which is Mar. 15,” he said and pointed out that all the staff involved in the Census have all taken an “oath of confidentiality” just as US Census Bureau employees do.

Meleisea acknowledged that he and the DOC staff completed the confidentiality training as required under federal law and this is the same training and “oath taking’ that was required for the 2020 population census.

(See yesterday’s Samoa News edition for part one of the interview with US Census Bureau officials.)