Opening a new OE Home Centre in the Nuku’alofa CBD Tonga’s Acting Prime Minister Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, this evening acknowleged that Private Sector development is very important for a sustainable government.

“The private sector continues to be a very important priority for Tonga, for the government. We are working towards a more enabling environment, I should say a more business friendly environment,” he told guests at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new retail centre.

OE Home Centre is located above the Office Equipment Ltd. shop in Fatafehi Road - a business that has been recently acquired by Tapuvakai and Toti Panuve. Selling a range of home and garden appliances, whiteware, sound sytems furniture and bedding, the Home Centre is an extension of the OE office supplies and quick print business. Tapu said they started the home centre because they saw an opportunity in the market place as a natural extension to the Office Equipment's main store. More stock is expected to arrive in November with furniture sourced out of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Ribbon cutting

The guest of honour, Hon. Sovaleni assured the business people present that government was trying to make things better for business.

“We are continuing our effort, which will reduce our dependency on fuel and finalizing the resale concessional agreement with Tonga Power Ltd. We are planning to work closely with them to ensure we have reliable and affordable power sources,” he said.

“Right now there is 92% coverage or 92% of households have access to some sort of energy sources, and what we are planning to do in about two years’ time is to have actually 100%,” he said and also mentioned plans for regulation of the industry.

“We are hoping to table a bill in parliament, hopefully in this session to establish an independent regulator. …It is a very important sector and so government can step back and concentrate just on policy making.”

“And as you may have heard, government is actually trying to pass the Receivership Bill in parliament with a hope to clearly define the various stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities, and procedures that need to be taken.

“We believe we need this Receivership Bill needs to be passed as soon as possible,” he said.