Samoa swops side of International Date Line

The South Pacific island nation of Samoa is to jump forward in time by one day in order to boost its economy by bringing it closer in line with Australia and New Zealand. Currently, the island is 21 hours behind Sydney. From 29 December it will be three hours ahead.

This is not the first time that the island has changed time zone – almost 120 years ago it swopped to facilitate trade with Europe and the United States. But since then, Australia and New Zealand have increasingly become Samoa's biggest trading partners.

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi commented: "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week."

Samoa is located approximately halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and has a population of 180,000 people.

Marie-Martine Buckens