Results for Tonga

An application by Hon. ‘Etuate Lavulavu to add a counterclaim against Viliami Uasike Latu was dismissed by Lord Chief Justice O. G. Paulsen in the Nuku‘alofa Supreme Court on 16 October. The Chief Justice stated that Lavulavu's counterclaim was "both irrelevant and useless".

The Foreign Exchange Levy Act 2015 that was originally scheduled to be implemented on 21 October, finally came into force yesterday, November 3, allowing government to collect one seniti from the banks on every pa'anga sold or purchased in foreign exchange transactions.

Tonga’s initiative to open up a new export market for Tongan squash in China could lead to first shipments as early as next season (2016) – if the Chinese government is satisfied that Tonga’s produce does not present a “high risk” for food safety and biosecurity - and that means that Tonga's produce has to be clean to a high standard, throughout the growing, packing and export process.

Four Tongan nationals have been charged with forgery and related charges, following a complaint over a passport application that allegedly involved a forged birth certificate.

Now that Government has found a way to levy a 1% taxation on remittances...it adds to the high currency transaction fees that the banks and fund transfer operators are already charging ordinary folks. Instead of finding ways to improve the economy, Government is once again robbing people of the only source of income from the hard labor of their loved ones living and working overseas. – Sione Ake-mei-hakau Mokofisi.

Tonga Police arrested a 30 year old man from Hofoa and seized 289 Cannabis plants from a plantation in Puke on Saturday, 24 October 2015. Another man was arrested yesterday on a Nuku'alofa street corner with 32 packs of marijuana.

The University of the South Pacific Council has appointed Mr Winston Thompson as its new Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council for three years, starting from January 2016. The meeting noted its Strategic Plan 2013-18 "sets out an ambitious path to transform USP from good to an excellent University.”

A complex four-days Pacific regional meeting to discuss a theme of “Building Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) as a Catalyst for economic growth”, began in Avarua, Cook islands today, 27 October. It aims to increase the engagement of the Private Sector in the Pacific Island economies, and to identify regional approaches for Private Sector to address its economic concerns.

Celebrating Pink October, the Tonga Breast Cancer Society hosted a fundraising luncheon at the Vakaloa Resort, Kanokupolu today joined by the society Patron Princess Pilolevu, her daughters Hon Frederica Filipe and Hon. Fanetupouvava'u Tu'ivakano and their children.