A draft urban planning and management strategy is to be submitted to Tonga's government in the middle of this year for consideration.
The team leader from Global Works International, Richard Mabbitt, says this is phase one of an Asian Development Bank-funded programme worth up to seven million US dollars to improve the planning and basic infrastructure of the country.
Mr Mabbitt says there had been an attempt to introduce a town planning act in 1994 but this was rejected over concerns the government was trying to tell people what to do with their land.
He says they will have lots of community input to ensure that the aims of the system are achieved.
"A clear and equitable system of land development, land management which certainly doesn't exist at the moment. So, that people can see how decision for development are made and everybody gets a chance to say yes or no. And, secondly, some physical improvements ."
Mr Mabbitt says the strategy will include roads, water supply, drainage and sanitation as well as land management issues.
He expects the infrastructure projects will get under way next year.
Mr Mabbitt says there had been an attempt to introduce a town planning act in 1994 but this was rejected over concerns the government was trying to tell people what to do with their land.
He says it's too early to tell what the plan will look like but he believes that the urban and rural areas may be treated a little differently.
The planning system in the urban area will almost certainly be a system based on a series of applications to different ministries that have to be approved, in terms of building construction, in terms of land use - quite a formal system. Hopefully we can design a two-tier system where in the rural areas, this can be much more controlled by village committees.
