Carrot for N.Z. Manufacturers

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 10, 10 November 1977, Page 4

Carrot for N.Z. Manufacturers

New Zealand manufacturers may be able to move into Tonga on a large scale now that the new Tongan Development Bank has opened. The Bank was opened on September 1 to oversee new business opportunities in Tonga. The Bank has a capital of $400,000 (90 per cent owned by the Tongan Government) and after one year’s trading will be entitled to funding from the Asian Development Bank. The Tongan'bank is interested in talking to any New Zealand industrialist looking for a joint venture Tongan partner to set up a

factory in Tonga. If a Tongan partner cannot be found the bank would be used for the proposed project. Once the project became profitable the bank’s share would be handed over to Tongan citizens. The Bank prefers agricultural developments as Tonga has the raw materials with large quantities of copra, bananas and fresh vegetables. The Bank says labour is cheap and plentiful. Meanwhile the Tongan trade dlegation recently visiting New Zealand asked for more opportunities for export to New Zealand. The Tongan Bank had loaned to farmers so as to increase exports, said trade delegate Baron Vaea. He added that Tonga could not live with the present trade imbalance between itself and New Zealand. (In 1976 New Zealand sold s4m. worth of goods to Tonga while only buying sl!4m. worth from Tonga over the same period.)

New Zealand businessmen recognised the “special position’’ the South Pacific had in New Zealand’s trade relations.

Tongan trade delegates said Tonga was not lagging in self-help and noted a proposal to charter an aircraft to uplift fresh vegetables from

Tonga to New Zealand. The possibility of peanut and passionfruit production in Tonga was also discussed by the trade delegation and New ( Zealand businessmen.