Tongan economy gets poor rating, under World Bank indicators [1]
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - 17:15. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 17:03.
The Tongan economy is not shaping up well in comparision with other Pacific islands and other economies in the Asia Pacific region, according to World Bank indicators.
Four experts on Investment and Private Sector Development from the World Bank made a presentation on ...Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth... in Tonga this morning at the Janful International Dateline Hotel, Nuku'alofa.
Thomas Davenport, the Manager of Foreign Investment Advisory Services outlined in his presentation what he called five benchmarking indicators: Regulation of Entry, Rigidity of Employment, Contract enforcement, Credit Markets and Bankruptcy.
With these indicators he then rated Tonga up against other Pacific Island Countries and other world economies. These showed that the Tongan economy is not healthy.
Dr Ngongo Kioa, the General Manager of Leiola Duty Free and the President of the Tonga Chamber of Commerce expressed his disapproval with the conclusion drawn from the indicators, which showed that Tonga was not doing very well at all.
'Uhila Liava'a, the accountant of the Janful International Hotel also expressed a view that with only five Indicators a bigger picture of the state of the economy was incomplete. He suggested that there should be Indicators for Public Service Efficiency, and on the level of corruption.
Sean Duggan, an Investment Policy Officer responded that the five indicators were used to assess the situation in Tonga, but many more indicators may be included.
Bernard Drum, the leader of the group and a Private Sector Development specialist said that they were invited to Tonga by the Ministry of Finance to find ways to encourage the development of the Private Sector and economic growth.
As part of this World Bank program, Don Jacobson an Australian economic consultant will stay in Tonga for six months to try and get government and the private sector to work together. A move that Dr Ngongo Kioa thought was, ...embarrassing to bring a foreigner to get Tongans to marry....