Council supports private sector export initiatives [1]
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 10:29. Updated on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - 14:32.
Tonga's National Economic Development Council (NEDC), set up last year to assist private sector's export initiatives with a $15 million budget, has to date funded two projects and there are more in the pipeline.
Hon. Paul Karalus, the Minister of Transport, a member of the NEDC said their aim is to assist private sector projects in the three main economic sectors of agriculture, fisheries and tourism.
He said so far they have granted $80,000 pa'anga on two projects.
A local company, the Kingdom Fresh Products, which expertly grows and harvests root crops then freeze packs them for export, received assistance from the council for the final stage of packaging the processed root crops for export to the New Zealand market.
Paul said that KFP is already looking beyond New Zealand to Australia and the United States.
"What this illustrates is our wish to assist private companies over the humps so to speak, meaning they have got so far but have a little bit more to do before achieving their target," he said.
Deep Sea Fishing
The council also assisted the Tonga Export Fisheries Association (TEFA) in conducting a scoping survey in deep-sea fishing carried out by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA) a New Zealand company.
Naitilima Tupou, the Executive Member of the TEFA said today, that the scoping phase has been completed and they are waiting on the report from NIWA for the exploratory phase.
She said TEFA initiated this project but they approached the Council for assistance and they provided NZD$30,000 for the scoping study.
Naitilima said the scoping study looked at deep sea fishing at the depth of 500 to 800 metres and targets two particular type of fish, the Alfonsino and Bluenose fish, "but our study was not limited to just to these fish as there are other resource possibilities that can be caught at such depth," she said.
Naitilima said that the council had indicated they will continue their assistance in further studies, but if they cannot provide funding they will facilitate in looking for other sources of funding because this is an expensive project.
Pacific Trade Expo
The Minister said that the NEDC had pledged $100,000 pa...anga to support Tonga's participation in the Pacific Trade Expo to be held in Auckland March 5-6.
The council will be assisting Tonga's biggest trade mission by funding nine of the 11 booths at the Expo, which will accommodate over 31 Tongan companies attending the event.
Paul said that they are looking at providing a large fund for a tourist promotion over the next 12 months that will be divided into two halves in the first six months of this financial year and the next.
We are planning to work together with the airlines to assist in the promotion of Tongan tourist products at the same to work with Tonga Tourist Association to strengthen it as a representative body for the industry, but that will be confirmed later, he said.
Assistance
Paul clarified that the assistance can be made out in small grants to get private companies over the small humps in similar way that they assisted in the processing food company, the other approach is to take an industry sector wide approach like how they plan to do in the tourism sector and in the deep fishing.
Paul said the fund made available is $15 million pa...anga and they have only used a small amount but they hope to get out there and use the rest and see how it can regenerate the economy.
The council meets every two weeks and is in the process of putting the criteria in place and the ball should start rolling.
"What we need to do now is put out a perspective to inform people of the different areas we are representing and how the council operates and we would also advertise for a secretariat to run it," added Paul.
There are other small projects applications that are being discussed by the council.
The council was set up in June last year chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr Feleti Sevele with 11 other members, including the Minister of Finance, the Minister for Labour Commerce and Industries, and the Minister for Transport.
Private Sector members are Mana Latu (Agriculture), Lennie Niit (Fishing), Fakatele Faletau (Tourism), Paul Pelzer (Bankers Association), Ross Chapman (Chamber of Commerce), Jeremy Wang (Chinese Business Council), 'Atolo Tu'inukuafe (Small Business Association), and a member from the Civil Society.