At the moment, Samoa is the last country to see the sun go down every day, but a change in the international dateline will now make it the first to see the sun rise. Samoa is getting ready to skip a day and shift its time zone forward by 24 hours.

The dateline, which runs through the middle of the Pacific, and currently passes to the west of the island nation, means that Samoa is 11 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.

That will change as the clock strikes midnight on Thursday when the country will go straight into Saturday.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi explains cancelling this Friday 30 December 2011, where nobody will be born or die in Samoa, has to do with business:

In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we’re losing out on two working days a week.

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.

The adjustment reverses a decision made 120 years ago to move to the east of the international dateline because most of Samoa’s trade at the time was with the United States and Europe. Now the majority of that trade occurs with Australasian countries.

After the change, Samoa will be one hour ahead of Wellington and three hours ahead of Sydney.

Mr Tuilaepa has already shown himself to be quite a proactive chap. He switched driving from the right side of the road to the left in 2009 so Samoa would be more like Australia and New Zealand.

[Source: AFP]