From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 3, December 2001.

When HM King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV unveiled a plaque (pictured above right) to mark the beginning of a $9 million upgrading and expansion of the International Dateline Hotel on December 22, it also marked the first investment in Tonga by a Chinese company, the Janfull Investments Ltd.

With the Kingdom of Tonga, the former sole owner of the hotel, in April this year they formed a new company, the Janfull International Dateline Hotel Ltd., now the new owner of the hotel.   

The Janfull group began negotiating with the Tongan government in 1997, but things did not really start to take shape until this year, with the forming of the new company in April and the signing of a loan agreement between Tonga’s Minister of Finance Siosiua ‘Utoikamanu and the Deputy Governor of the China Export and Import Bank, Zhao Wenzhang.

The King told the gathering that the upgrading of the hotel was long overdue, particularly now when Tonga hopes to host overseas delegations who will be visiting Tonga for business negotiations. Cabinet ministers attending were the Acting Deputy Prime Minister Cecil Cocker and the former Acting Deputy Prime Minster Clive Edwards.