By Marcus Leach
The island nation of Samoa is set to jump forward in time by a day in a bid to boost its economy.
The South Pacific island will switch to the west side of the international date line in a bid to make it easier to do business with Australia and New Zealand.
As it stands Samoa is twenty-one hours behind Sydney, but from December 29th of this year they will be three hours ahead.
It is not the first time the country has changed its time; 119 years ago they made the move the other way, to the east side of the date line in a similar bid to improve trade relations with the US and Europe.
With Australia and New Zealand becoming Samoa's biggest trade partners in recent years the country has decided that it makes more sense to be aligned with them rather than Europe.
"In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week," Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said.
"While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane."
