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

Dr Sam Wong, the controversial Chinese businessman who has invested millions of dollars in Tonga since 1992 returned to the kingdom in May.

During his stay Wong hosted a special luncheon at the site of the 164-room hotel, which he has been building since 1992. He announced that the hotel  rooms were being increased from 164 to 200 and would be completed by the end of this year, but, “the coffee shop, the foyer and 10 rooms will be opened before His Majesty’s birthday on July 4, and the rest of the hotel with 190 rooms will be opened in December.”

Wong has been criticised over the years because his promises do not match his work, so on this occasion Dr Wong wanted to convince us that he meant what he said by inviting along the Minister of Police Hon. Clive Edwards, the Minister of Tourism, Dr Masaso Paunga and the Director of Tourism, Va‘inga Palu.

Well, July 4 came and went, and the elusive Dr Wong had left the country, his project manager, ‘Etuini Mo‘ungaloa was also out of the country, but the Chief Engineer at the site, Rachanida said that they could not make the July deadline but they were pushing ahead to complete the hotel by December.

Dr Wong is a man with multi-million investment projects in Tonga, but unfortunately to date none of these projects has been completed. He started building the hotel in 1992 and it has remained an empty concrete shell.

He started the Friendly Islands Helicopter Company Ltd, and brought into the country two Russian MI-17 passenger helicopters with 11 Russians pilots in 1995. This project was aborted about a year later because Wong failed to comply with the Ministry of Civil Aviation registration requirement and the helicopters were never allowed to fly.

The other grandiose project that Wong invested on was an $18.9 million seven storey shopping plaza to be built in the centre of Nuku‘alofa on land he leased from the king for 50 years. The Plaza remained on the drawing board because the lease was taken over the by the ANZ Bank and was later bought by Fund Management Ltd. Wong also made small investment in other ventures such as a Chinese Health Clinic, which again seems to have died a natural death.