Results for Development

A Tonga Micro Finance Program that would give direct support to low income earners through the provision of micro loans to be administered by the Tonga Development Bank, is to start in early February 2013, for two years.

In committing just over TOP$1 million pa'anga from the Government of Japan to fund community projects including the upgrade of water supply systems in four villages in Tongatapu and the construction of new classrooms for Vava'u Side School, the Ambassador of Japan to Tonga urged the recipients "to manage the facilities and equipment properly so they can last as long as our long-standing friendship."

Assigning caregivers to visit homes of the most vulnerable elderly people in Tongatapu and Lifuka in Ha'apai, and to care for them for a few hours each day, is an essential service that will be provided under Tonga's first Social Services Pilot program for the elderly.

The Vuna Wharf reconstructed at a cost of TOP$30 million is ready to be handed over to the Government of Tonga today, August 14, but no date has been set for when it will open for business.

China will this month officially handover the Nuku'alofa Central Business District Project, financed with a TOP$118 million loan to the Government of Tonga.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a US$3 million grant to Tonga to improve sustainable livelihoods in 29 communities in the “outer islands” (outside the main islands of Tongatapu, Vava'u and Ha’apai) and 31 communities in the “main islands” of Tongatapu, Vava'u, Ha'api the Niua’s and ‘Eua. Approximately 16,900 poor households will be targeted, with special attention to poor rural women who are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

A plan to launch the newly reconstructed Vuna Wharf by the late King George Tupou V on 18 April to coincide with the arrival at the new wharf of its first cruise ship has been postponed to June, according to Mosese Lavemai, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nuku'alofa Port Authority.

The opening date for the new Vuna Wharf, reconstructed at a cost of $30 million and scheduled for early 2012, remains uncertain, with work still to be done around the wharf site before it can open for business. Mosese Lavemai, the CEO of the Nuku'alofa Port Authority, said on February 1, that although the reconstruction of the actual wharf was completed ahead of schedule in December 2011, additional work needed to be completed around the wharf before a date is set for an opening.

A 4.5kw solar-panel to power a water pump for Nukunuku village, was donated by the German government, and launched by Dr Christian Ruck, on February 23. Dr Ruck is the first German Member of Parliament to visit Tonga, and as the Deputy Chairman of the caucus of the ruling party of the German parliament, he is in charge of overseas development, environment and energy.