American Samoa's acting governor Faoa Sunia says the territorial government has no money to purchase Chicken of the Sea Samoa Packing.
Mr Faoa was responding to a caller on the governor's weekend radio program who was wanting to know if the American Samoa economy is financially able to purchase Samoa Packing when the current owners do leave.
He said even if it does have money, the government is not in the practice of getting into private businesses.
The caller's question has been one of many ideas floating around since Chicken of the Sea International announced plans to close Samoa Packing at the end of September this year.
Mr Faoa commended the caller for the interesting question, but added that the short and fast answer is that the government does not have money to purchase the cannery.
He said he is happy that someone has brought this issue up on a public forum because there may be some people listening to the radio program who may want to take over Samoa Packing.
