Visiting Tonga to look at small business development was Ronald N Langston from Washington D.C. who spoke at a Tonga Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Billfish Bar, Nuku'alofa on 17 May on theme of developing opportunities for small and medium enterprises, and building strategic alliance between businesses to help them grow.

His visit was organised by the US Embassy in Suva under its Strategic Speaker Initiative Program.

A former National Director of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Mr Langston is a principal of Langston Global Enterprises, LLC, an entrepreneurial and business innovations consulting firm, which has a focus on business-to-business relations between U.S. businesses and the strategic pursuit of business relationships between Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Island nations though the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, Millennium Challenge Accounts and U.S. Free Trade Agreements