Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele announced the shift will probably take place on 29 December.
It will mean that Samoa will share the same day, rather than being a day behind Australia and New Zealand.
Tuila’epa said there will even be a tourist spin-off due to the fact that Samoa and American Samoa will now be divided by the dateline.
People wanting two birthdays or two wedding anniversaries travel to Samoa and have them.
Tuila’epa has already managed to successfully get the country in 2009 to switch from driving on the right hand side of the road to the left, and he has got the country to use daylight savings — with mixed results.
With most expatriate Samoans in Australia and New Zealand, and most business done with Auckland and Sydney, Tuila’epa wants Apia in the same day.
But the problem with his latest plan, if carried out, is that it will leave the New Zealand territory of Tokelau, which is two days sailing north of Samoa, stranded in yesterday, along with American Samoa.
If the New Zealand government wanted, of course, it too could join the re-drawing of the dateline to get Tokelau into today.
