From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.

Richard Stanley, Tonga’s new alternative executive director to the Asian Development Bank, visited Tonga at the end of April.

Richard began on his new post on November 1, based in Manilla, and he said that his visit to Tonga was to introduce himself to the government, and to the private sector, “I want them to know that Tonga has a voice in the Executive Board of the ADB.”

Richard was selected as the alternative executive director for Tonga by the New Zealand government under a long standing agreement between the two countries whereby New Zealand selects the alternative director to represent Tonga, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Samoa.

The Asian Development Bank is the largest of its kind in the region and its major shareholder is the United States of America, but traditionally the chairman of the board is always a Japanese.

Richard said that Tonga was highly regarded by the ADB and that Tonga had the potential to be favourably considered by the ADB whenever it filed a loan application, “because physically the country is beautiful, it has a well-educated population, a fertile soil and an underdeveloped tourism industry.”

Richard worked in Nuku‘alofa with the Tonga Development Bank for two years from 1995-96. He still thinks that the Tonga Development Bank is playing a major role in the economic development of Tonga and he detested the idea that the TDB might operate like a commercial bank. “Tonga needs a good TDB, it is essential for development, until a time when we have a strong economy. I take my hat off to the Tonga Development Bank for what they have done for Tonga, and they are robust,” he said.