King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV opens parliament [1]
Thursday, June 1, 2000 - 10:00. Updated on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - 16:21.
From Matangi Tonga Magazin Vol. 15, no. 2, June 2000.
HM King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV leaves the Queen Salote Memorial Hall, Nuku‘alofa, after opening the first session of the Tongan Parliament for the 21st Century on May 25.
The King’s message to the House was for Tonga to improve its economy by increasing exports, and producing import substitution products such as feed for livestock. The King said that a Tongan Corporation had been established in Hawai’i to administer the use of a large area of land that Tonga was going to lease there. The King also said that Tonga had acquired land in American Samoa and Western Samoa where a market would be established for Tongan agricultural produce. The shipping of Tongan produce to the Samoas would be facilitated with ships that were currently planned for construction in the People’s Republic of China, the King said.