Results for Tonga

Digicel Group, the largest phone carrier in the Pacific Islands, with headquarters in Jamaica, announced it is working to refinance its activities and reduce its multi-billion dollar debts. The company has denied Australian reports of a deal to sell to China Mobile in the Pacific.

A professional development program for teachers established by the Ministry of Education earlier this year is helping to rebuild Tonga’s education system, aligning it to local, regional and international codes of teaching standards and achieving better learning outcomes.

Parliamentary debate was dominated by the Prime Minister's proposition for all members of parliament to contribute 20 percent of their annual salaries to government in its effort to counter the COVID-19, in parliament's session yesterday, 19 May 2020.

The Crown has been ordered by the Lord Chief Justice to return more than $10,000 in cash to a local Chinese business. The cash was forfeited when he was charged for false declaration, at Fua'amotu International Airport in 2018.

Tonga’s National Budget of $589.6 million pa’anga for 2020-2021 is the biggest deficit ever of $60 million, the Minister of Finance, Hon. Tevita Lavemaau told parliament this morning. From the House by Pesi Fonua.

The prices of petrol, kerosene and diesel have fallen largely in new prices effective on May 18.

Faced with a deficit National Budget for 2020-21, the salaries of Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament will be reduced by 20%, to help Tonga to counter the impact of the COVID-19, the Prime Minister told parliament this morning.

On November 2, 1866, the Reverend Shirley Waldemar Baker, missionary and eventual Prime Minister of Tonga, gave a lecture in which he describes the last traditional God House in Ha'apai....“I have stood in the old Fale Mee at Haano, which is the last fale otua (temple of their god) still standing in Haapai. At the foot of the principal post there is buried a man, who was said to be the best singer in all Tonga. He was offered a living sacrifice to the god at the building of the temple, as an act of dedication.” By David V. Burley.

No-fishing areas established around Tonga are showing they are helping coral reef ecosystems to recover, says the Special Management Area Report 2020, compiled by the Ministry of Fisheries in partnership with Australia's James Cook University recently. Damaged reefs might take 20 years for full recovery.