From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.

Tonga hosted this year’s ADFIP consortium on Development Banking Under Change and sought new avenues of technical and financial assistance.

The Association for Development Financial Institutions of the Pacific annual conference looks at ways to improve the performance of Development Banks in the Pacific.

The two-day  conference with 21 participants (pictured above) looked at possible assistance for Pacific Development Banks from donor agencies, multilateral agencies like the ADB, the European Investment Bank, Centre for Development of Enterprises, and South Pacific project facilities.

Previously funding sources for TDB have come through the ADB, although there are no current loans. However, Tonga will look at another line of credit from the European Investment Bank.

The Tonga Development Bank noted a huge change in performance from its $5 million-pa‘anga operating loss in 1998 to a $1.49 million pa‘anga profit at the end of June (against a full year forecast of $1.2 million).