Results for Development

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) estimates that the Asia-Pacific region will need to invest between $2.1 trillion and $2.5 trillion per year to fund a comprehensive agenda for sustainable development. Shamshad Akhtar.

Government has approved in principle the draft Tongan Strategic Development Framework 2015-2025, ‘A more progressive Tonga: enhancing Our Inheritance’ to be shared widely to the public and stakeholders outside government for information and comment. Key Stakeholders and the public are invited to review and submit comments on the TSDFII before March 31, 2015.

The construction of a new $25 million pa'anga Government office building dubbed "St George Palace" at Pangai Si'i in the Nuku'alofa CBD, has been postponed until after the Coronation of King Tupou VI in July 2015.

A population of 1.8 billion of adolescents and youth was recorded this year, according to the State of World Population Report 2014, but nine of 10 of them live in less developed countries, where the young encounter obstacles to their rights to education, health, and to live a life free from violence.

Road rumble strips and smart new red and white signs with village names, are being constructed for eight villages along the Hala Liku from ‘Utulau to Kala'au this month, the latest among many different kinds of signposts that have gone up around Tongatapu recently.

Visiting Tonga, New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key this morning pledged around $2 million assistance to upgrade Tonga’s Teufaiva Stadium for the 2019 Pacific Games. New Zealand has also committed another $5 million towards the reconstruction of schools in Ha’apai that were destroyed by Tropical Cyclone Ian.

The Ministry of Infrastructure has stopped the Tonga Red Cross from constructing temporary shelters for families in Ha‘apai after Tropical Cyclone Ian devastated the islands in January. Two houses completed on the island of Mou'unga'one were handed over to affected families this week but the Red Cross had planned to build another 24 to alleviate the suffering.

Tonga signed a $23.1 million grant agreement with the Asian Development Bank to fund a Climate Resilience Sector Project on February 25 in Nuku’alofa.

Tonga’s third solar farm is being constructed at Vaini on Tongatapu, at a cost of $14 million (USD) under Japanese aid funding. The project will introduce a special micro-grid system to coordinate electricity generated from a variety of renewable sources in the future.