Results for Business

The proportion of women in business leadership has mostly remained steady since 2021, in Tonga, where men still hold over four out of every five board director positions, and the number of boards with no women directors at all has increased, from 22% in 2021 to 31% in 2024, according to a new report published by the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI).

Last Tuesday 9 July, Tonga's communications Regulator, MEIDECC, notified Starlink, the global satellite internet network, to cut off all services to its roaming subscribers across Tonga's land and seas. The government will not allow the use of Starlink in the current ongoing communications crisis in Tonga, because they have not given Starlink's fixed broadband services a license to operate here. The regulator is not allowing the roaming services either, after the nation's domestic fiber optic cable failed on 29 June. “With understanding of the inconvenience, at the same time the law cannot be put aside just because you have slow internet,” the Prime Minister told Starlink users yesterday, many of whom had raised safety concerns.

A well-known Fiji entrepreneur, Mr. Yanktesh Permal (Y.P.) Reddy, O.B.E, chairman of the board and owner of the Tanoa Group, died in New Zealand on 4 January, at the age of 89 years.

Celebrating its $200 million pa'anga in loans disbursement, the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) and a large group of women gathered at the St. Andrew's School Hall on 15 December, to mark the event.

Bank of South Pacific Tonga Limited (BSP) today, Friday 10 March, 2023, announced a Net Profit after Tax of T$13.4 million pa'anga for the financial year ending 31 December, 2022. BSP Tonga Country Head Marcellina Rose Wolfgramm-Haapai said, “The Net Profit after Tax for FY2022 was 13.4% above the 2021 performance and achieved from improved Operating Income.

Fifteen young Tongan women, who are starting out in business, joined a local networking event last week in a program that connects them with other aspiring “Greenpreneurs” and business leaders in their communities and in the Pacific Islands.

Australian telecommunications company, Telstra, announced today it will acquire Digicel Pacific for US$1.6 billion, in partnership with the Australian Government. Telstra plans to retain the same Digicel brand and the current Digicel Pacific management team will continue to lead the business.

Christmas activities organized by Digicel Tonga marked the beginning of the festive season, with the lighting of the Christmas tree at Digicel Square in the Nuku’alofa CBD this afternoon, 20 November.

New York Times reporting: Now, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate the cruise industry, companies are downsizing their fleets and selling the ships for scrap. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Kamil Onal, chairman of the Ship Recyclers’ Association of Turkey. “Before the pandemic we mainly dismantled cargo ships, but now this has become the fate for cruise ships after months of sitting idle without passengers.”