Tonga No. 6 in World Bank's survey of small islands business [1]
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 17:07. Updated on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - 15:32.
Tonga has scored high ratings in surveys conducted by the World Bank for measuring the ease of doing business. It came in 6th place in a review of 32 small island developing states. Fiji was 4th and Samoa 10th.
Tonga was one of two Pacific island countries to be listed in the top 50 among a broader World Bank survey of 178 nations. The Kingdom came in at number 47, while Fiji was ranked 36th.
The Prime Minister, Hon Dr Feleti Sevele, said that the favourable results for Tonga reflected the efforts of the Government in creating an investor and business-friendly economy. "We are working hard to attract and encourage new investment," he said. "Investment boosts the economy and creates more jobs. Tonga's survey rankings will definitely have a positive effect. They become a selling point among local and overseas investors."
The World Bank says that a high ranking on its ease of doing business index means a country's regulatory environment is conducive to business operations. It reported that a low ranking in ease of contract enforcement in its 2006 survey prompted Tonga's Government to take action. By September 2007, Tonga's Supreme Court had cut the average time to enforce contracts from 510 days to 350.
"While this does not make the Court the world's fastest, the vast improvement ensured the country the title of top reformer in the category of contract enforcement," the World Bank said
"Striking out close to 100 per cent of dormant cases, placing others on a strict timetable, introducing mediation and increasing the jurisdiction of the Magistrate's Court, was achieved in just over one year."
Ratings for other Pacific countries in the survey of small island states included: Vanuatu 11 (62 globally), Kiribati 16 (73 globally), Solomon Islands 18 (79 globally), Palau 19 (82 globally), Papua New Guinea 20 (84 globally), Marshall Islands 21 (89 globally), Federated States of Micronesia 25 (112 globally), and Timor Leste 31 (176 globally). PM Office, 28/05/08.