The Tongan Prime Minister, Dr Feleti Sevele, has announced the setting up of a new Private Sector Reconstruction Facility, PSRF, worth 8 million US dollars.
The facility will be funded by the Australian and New Zealand Governments, and is aimed at providing low cost rebuilding loans to those businesses that were directly affected by the riots in November 2006
A statement from the Australian High Commissioner said that the PSRF would provide liquidity to enable Banks to lend to eligible businesses with rebuilding and reconstruction projects.
Instead of the local lending rate of 13% the PSRF would loan to eligible businesses at 5% interest.
This is made possible by the injection of donor funds that will be on loan from the Government of Tonga and the National Reserve Bank of Tonga to local banks at no cost.
