Boost for Vava‘u [1]
Sunday, December 20, 1998 - 11:30. Updated on Friday, January 8, 2016 - 14:00.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 13, no. 4, December 1998.
A $10m EU project is creating a viable business environment in Tonga’s yachting centre
David Macrae was in Vava‘u at the end of November, to look at the $10 million construction projects, funded by the European Union.
David is the European Union’s head of delegation based in Suva, and covering ten countries in the South Pacific, including Tonga.
David came to fine tune the project programming and to meet new executives, “we have a new man here, there is also a new governor in Vava’u, and a new Chairman of our committee, Prince ‘Ulukalala.”
New water system
David was pleased with the progress of the construction, “the new market will be completed by February, and the wharf with a new Customs Shed and a new jetty will be completed in April. The new $2 million pa‘anga water system with 15 wells will be completed in July, and the biggest component of the project, the roads improvement at $3.5 million will be on-going through 1999.”
He said that their program in Vava’u would create a viable environment for business, “which is in line with government policy, that the private sector is the engine for economic progress. We are looking at agriculture, fisheries and tourism. Therefore in the third phase we should be on the look out for a niche, for a piece of the action. “Vava‘u is known in Fiji and throughout the world as the centre of yachting, so there is no reason why Vava‘u should not be the centre for yachting. It does not have to be Monte Carlo, it could be Vava‘u,” he said. “When we are talking about tourism, we are not talking about attracting thousands of people like other countries. But attracting the right kind—for example, if you are interested in sailing then maybe Vava‘u is the place.”
David said that the European funding of the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, which was due to be end in September this year had been extended for another 18 months, “and this time focusing on marketing and training.”
Lomé successor
David said that the Lome Convention, since its inception in 1975 was viewed as a post independence arrangement between industrialised European countries and the developing countries of Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific.
The current convention will end on 28 February 2000 and negotiations have started at the end of September between the ACP states and the EU, and during the next 18 months, there will be a lot more meetings to work out a successor to Lomé.
David said the movement to establish a new currency for Europe would reach a new height on January 4 when the current European Currency Unit, the ECU will be replaced by the EURO.