Cigarette factory, to begin with export only [1]
Sunday, March 30, 2003 - 10:06. Updated on Friday, February 19, 2016 - 15:53.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.
Tonga’s first cigarette factory is set to be in production by March. In the initial stage International Metrople Corporation Ltd., a Taiwanese company, will invest about $2 million pa‘anga to get the plant in operation at Nuku‘alofa’s Small Industries Centre.
Vika Fusimalohi, the head of the Industries Division of the Ministry of Labour and Commerce, said that the factory would produce only cigarettes for export, and they were specially flavoured cigarettes to suit the taste of the Asian market. All the raw material would be imported and the factory would offer employment opportunities for 50 people.
The company has been granted a Development Licence and a Trading Licence, and is expected to create more employment opportunities in another stage of its development when it starts growing tobacco in Tonga. Vika said that the company then was expected to employ 250 people.
The Secretary for the Ministry Labour, Commerce and Industries, Paulo Kautoke, said that the proposal for the setting up of the tobacco factory met some resistance within the ministry, and initially it was turned down, however, a readmission of the proposal was later accepted.
The irony of the matter is that Tonga was probably among the first countries in the world to pass legislation in 2001 prohibiting the advertising and promotion of cigarettes and other tobacco products. It also prohibits the sale of tobacco products to young people, and restricts smoking in public places and on public transport.