Samoa’s poor are 'lazy': PM

Samoans who claim they are poor are lazy, Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele says.

In a comment on the government website Savali, Tuilaepa says having no food, water, clothes, a home or access to medical treatment was poverty.

There was no poverty in Samoa. 

"Every Samoan has claim to land. There are plenty of mangoes, pawpaws, bananas and breadfruit falling off and rotting on the ground, plenty of fish in the sea," he said.

"The problem is too many people are coming into town and loathing around. They are lazy and do not want to go back to their village to work the land. They should stay in their village where their lands are and develop it."

Tuilaepa says that some Samoans think that not having car, a TV or a European house is poverty.

"Those are luxuries. Having none of those is certainly not poverty."

For decades Samoa has been listed by the United Nations one of the 48 "least developed nation" in the world.

Last year the UN suggested Samoa be moved off the list but successive governments have resisted losing the status as it gives them access to low interest aid loans.

- © Fairfax NZ News