Results for New Zealand aid

New Zealand’s pledge of 4,800 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine for Tonga arrived at Fua’amotu International Airport today, 16 June.

The New Zealand Government has announced a $714 million budget increase in its development assistance with the Pacific, a key focus on May 8.

Additional line mechanics have arrived in Tonga to assist Tonga Power with restoration works of electricity in Tongatapu.

New Zealand’s future development assistance to Tonga will be focused on energy, law and justice, education and skills development, and economic development, as an outcome of consultations completed in Tonga today, with New Zealand’s Deputy Secretary for International Development, Jonathan Kings and the Tonga Government. New Zealand anticipates investing approximately TOP$112 million (NZD$75 million) in development assistance to Tonga over the next three years.

Apart from loss of agricultural food crops, some damage to schools, Ngu Hospital and HMAF Camp Fangatongo, Vava‘u has emerged from Cyclone Winston’s two close passes without significant damage to major infrastructure, an official assessment survey has concluded. Australia delivered 400 mosquito nets in partnership with the Tonga Red Cross Society to help control the spread of Zika virus after the cyclone.

Creative Tongans are realizing that they can make a livelihood from handicrafts, after receiving training in cultural tourism awareness, says Sione Loseli who ran workshops in Vava‘u last week, under a Handicrafts and Cultural Tourism Support Program.

New Zealand is providing a further $1.4 million to help Tonga recover from Tropical Cyclone Ian, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced on January 22. The contribution will cover resources needed to reconnect power to villages including on smaller outer islands.

Four young entrepreneurs have won $1,900 seed capital for building their business plan, in a competition for business investment capital.

Multi-million grants from Australia and New Zealand were handed over to the Vice-Chancellor and President of the USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, Suva on 30 January.