The New Zealand government has realigned its development assistance to the Pacific nations, the New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Mr Murray McCully told the Tongan media in Nuku'alofa on Tuesday, July 14.

Mr McCully said that his government brought the NZAID Agency back into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "so that we can provide a clear direction for the agency to follow."

He said that they had also shifted their development assistance more into economic development than it had been in the past.

Mr McCully arrived in Tonga on Friday, July 10 and spent the weekend in Vava'u with the Tongan Prime Minister, Hon. Dr Feleti Sevele, for "two days of constructive talk.

"In Vava'u I saw the tourism highlights Tonga has to offer."

Mr McCully said that New Zealand has a very positive view of its relationship with Tonga, "and you have a very ambitious view of your future. If we work in partnership together we believe we can achieve a lot of those ambitions."

Ministerial discussions

He said that following meetings and discussion with Tongan officials, "we have made some initial decisions. We agree to have a more formal working relationship, involving more ministerial discussion than we have had, we think that is important, and looking at areas for economic development priority - and energy is, clearly, one of them."

Mr McCully said that his government had agreed to contribute to the development of renewable energy, "particularly solar energy to feed into the grid.

"We have agreed to do some work on the power lines and power poles, which lose energy on the way around. We have committed to a feasibility study for that piece of work."

Tourism and Agriculture

The two industries Mr McCully identified that Tonga could develop to increase its trade with New Zealand were tourism and agriculture. He said that his government had agreed to underwrite the million dollars that was required by Air New Zealand for the Tonga-Los Angeles link for the current year. "We are looking at areas where we can assure the tourism future of Tonga is secure," he said.

"Tourism and agriculture both have opportunity and complement opportunities, as your tourism industry businesses grow you need to bring in import substitution. One of the challenges that the net benefit is maximize to the host nation, but going beyond that, New Zealand provides a significant market for fresh organic produce out of the Pacific. I am determined to remove obstacle to deal with a serious trade imbalance at the present time."

Heat treatment

While the Mr McCully was in Tonga he visited a high temperature plant that was installed a few years ago with the intention of treating and making sure that Tongan produce was free of bugs before they left for New Zealand, but the plant has never been used commercially.

"A long standing view of mine that New Zealand should import more islands' produce from countries like Tonga, one should be able to wander around Auckland and be able to see the products on display in our shops, and I believe we have made good progress in making the high temperature plant to work. I have given a commitment to put whatever resources are required to ensure that the technical expertise required to build growers' confidence and to ensure that we turn market opportunity into something more profitable."

Rugby World Cup

While Mr McCully and Dr Sevele were in Vava'u they were not talking only about tourism, renewable energy and fresh organic produce, there was something else that was very important to national identity, and that was Rugby.

New Zealand is the host nation for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and Mr McCully is the Minister for the Rugby World Cup. The opening game is the 'Ikale Tahi versus the All Blacks at Eden Park, Auckland.

Mr McCully said that he had been in close contact with the International Rugby Board and the New Zealand Rugby Union and he was aware that the Tongan Union had some problems. He has offered Dr Feleti Sevele any support that he could give to deal with the issues that are affecting the Tongan Rugby Union.

Dr Sevele said that government did not want to get involved with the running of rugby, but the IRB had expressed its concern over how there had not been any financial report from the Tongan Rugby Union during the past years. He said that the Auditor General had been auditing the books and a decision by government on what it should do will be based on the report of the Auditor General.

Mr McCully's four nation Pacific tour included Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Samoa.