20 Jul 2004

Tonga's Prince Regent says Kingdom has no-one else to blame for poor economy

2:28 pm on 20 July 2004

The Prince Regent of Tonga says the Kingdom has nobody else to blame for its economic problems, because, unlike its Pacific neighbours, it has never been ruled by another country.

Crown Prince Tupouto'a was speaking at the beginning of a World Trade Organisation seminar in Nuku'alofa, to brief business people on what is required of them, before the Kingdom joins the WTO next year.

The secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Leigh Miller, says it is up to the Kingdom to solve its own financial problems, and joining the WTO is one way of doing that.

"We can't blame our problems, our economy, on being a protectorate, like the others were. We've got to get ourselves out there and fix our economy up...get the private sector going, get the government going."

The secretary of Tonga's Chamber of Commerce, Leigh Miller.