27 Sep 2013

ADB provides grants to Tonga to help achieve fiscal stability

8:11 am on 27 September 2013

The Asian Development Bank is to provide grants to help Tonga achieve fiscal stability and improve the country's long-term growth prospects.

ADB economist Lai Tora says the support will back government efforts to redirect spending to more productive sectors of the economy, improve investor confidence, and create the fiscal room so the country can respond to future economic or climatic shocks.

The Bank is providing a grant of 4-point-five million US dollars..

The program will assist the government with budgetting, spending and its tax regimes.

It will also advance the government's plans for private sector involvement in the International Dateline Hotel and Tonga Communications Corporation, strengthen state-owned enterprise corporate governance, and reform business licensing processes.