The premier of Niue says the almost 38 million US dollar budget presented to parliament this week will give foreign investors confidence.
Toke Talagi says the budget includes more than 17 million dollars for recurrent funding, eight-hundred thousand for maintenance funding and almost 18-and-a-half million for investment and development.
He says the inclusion of that funding in the budget for the first time's intended to send a message to investors.
"It'll give them confidence that the Niue government is putting aside a good deal of money and allocating a great deal of money towards investment and development, particularly in tourism but also in the areas of infrastructure and so on. So I hope that people will see that as a good signal of confidence that the government has and also the donors have with regard to investment in Niue."
Toke Talagi says many of the projects to which money's been allocated aren't yet approved so that part of the budget reads more like a wish list.
The budget's expected to have its second reading next week.
