Results for 2001

A third television station for Tongatapu, the Doulos Broadcasting Network, DBN was commissioned by King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV on May 2. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 1, June 2001.

The $3 million pa‘anga Shopping Centre development on Nuku‘alofa’s Taufa‘ahau Road is a dream come true for Tongan businessman, Tevita Misa Fifita. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 1, June 2001.

A computer studies program was first introduced to Tonga by the Tonga Defence Service during the early 1980s under a strategic plan to fight Tonga’s arch enemy, unemployment and an unskilled work force. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 1, June 2001.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES: There was no looking back for Betty Blake after she accepted a challenge to help the women and children in Tonga who were being treated badly. Betty, who has been working extensively with women in the villages throughout Tonga since 1996, is sure that the first step for women to gain equality is for women to know their rights. “About 95% of the women who filled the questionnaire did not know their rights. They assumed that once they were married their husband owned everything they had, and therefore they had to be obedient, they believed ‘it is alright if he beats me because I am his wife’.” Most of the women she was dealing with had been conditioned to think this way and it was very difficult for them to break out of it. Interview from Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

Millions of pa‘anga in private investment money is currently being poured into commercial development along a two kilometres stretch of Taufa‘ahau Road between the Nuku’alofa Post Office and Fanga. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

More efficient collection of taxes made the Tonga government $8.3 million richer at the end of the financial year, June 2000, compared to the previous year. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

The Westpac Banking Corporation became the major shareholder of the Bank of Tonga on January 4, after it bought the 30% shares of the Bank of Hawai‘i. The Bank of Tonga now has only two shareholders, Westpac holding 60% and the Government of Tonga 40%. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

While there were apparently equal job opportunities for women in Tonga, women still remained under-represented at the highest levels of government.

A multi-million fisheries co-venture between ‘Alatini Fisheries Company Ltd. (Tonga) and the Fortuna Company (Australia), to harness Tonga’s Broadbill Swordfish resource, began with the arrival in Nuku‘alofa on December 18 of the 132 tonnes fishing boat Sao Pedro. From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.