Results for Business

Vailele Taukitoku the owner of the FV Losemani Fo'ou and one of six Tongan fishermen who were rescued by the German cruise ship The Albatros south of Tonga on Saturday, February 4, is thankful for their rescue and his safe return home to Tonga last night, but he's very sad that he's lost his little boat, and his fishing livelihood. "If we were given the batteries we could have fixed our boat and returned home. The sea - how it was rough at that point -was normal to us," he said. By Linny Folau

A National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) or action plan to deliver financial services at affordable costs to Tongans is being developed by the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) and the National Reserve Bank of Tonga (NRBT) for the first time.

Tonga's Government this evening has refuted claims that it issued a casino license to a US company called Red Warrior Entertainment LLC, while admitting that it had supported two projects for a tourism investment facility, known as "Tavake Tamafua Investment Project", proposed by counterparts.

A new wind power generation system and grid stabilization system for Tonga being planned by JICA as a grant aid project with the Government of Japan is expected to offer a stable power supply and diversify Tongatapu's power supply sources.

A renewable energy project to upgrade existing power distribution grid in Vava’u and 'Eua, to be completed by the end 2019, will get an additional USD$5 million from the Asian Development Bank. Half of the amount is a loan and the other half is a grant.

The new domestic air service of the Tonga Airways that was scheduled to start next week has been cancelled after it failed to win Ministerial approval, Samiu Vaipulu, Chairman of the Tonga Airways confirmed this afternoon, 15 December.

Queen Nanasipau'u officiated at the ground-breaking ceremony today for the construction of a new 2 MW solar farm at Matatoa, Tofoa – the largest to be built in Tonga. The privately-funded $10 million pa'anga development by Zhuhai Singyes Green Building Technology Ltd. from Guangdong, China, is expected to be completed by June 2017. The company's investment in Tonga solar power generation is based on a long-term agreement to sell all the power they generate to Tonga Power Ltd.

Ben Kealy from Ireland is the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer for Digicel Tonga starting on Friday, November 18 for a period up to two-years. Digicel Tonga also launched its ‘Get Gifted Christmas’ campaign this morning with the lighting of a Christmas tree is planned to be held tonight, at Digicel Square, CBD.

Tonga has decided to adopt daylight saving and will advance its clock one hour ahead on Sunday, November 6 for two-months, in order to allow more daylight hours in the evening during the longer summer days. The change will put Tonga 14 hours ahead of UTC during the summer.