Transcript
PAULA TAUMOEPEAU: Tonga's economy has always been small. We have limited exports. We are dependent on remittances from overseas so to a big extent, how well our economy does is how well our workers that are sending back money are doing in Australia, New Zealand and the US. That's why I am confident, it doesn't matter what government is formed next time, they will want to build the private sector because the private sector is an engine of growth. It is a little bit uneven, the sector, but tourism has come up strongly and I think with the seasonal employment scheme, that is also an earner for the country. Although it's not so good for businesses here because we lose skilled staff. We cannot compete with wages that are given to them in Australia or New Zealand. We can't stop them from going, but the plus side is when they are sending money back, it is spent in the businesses in Tonga.
KORO VAKA'UTA: Many candidates and people have been talking about the export of labour being a big way forward in terms of boosting remittances and therefore economy, but how do you increase the skills without losing them?
PT: Any business that survives in Tonga for long, they have to train people all the time. They know that as soon as somebody's skilled enough and has an opportunity, they'll go. It is a fact of doing business in Tonga and most of the Pacific islands. You got to look around, you got to be thinking about that all the time. It's one of the things that you have got to be worried about, it's a constant. We are not really complaining but we want government to be aware of it so they make training easier especially on more vocational, technical skills that businesses need.
KV: The way forward? We have had people talking about there is too much tax, about government looking for revenue, that sort of thing. Any initiatives or ways that could help business improve? Is tax an issue for example?
PT: Tax is always an issue for business anywhere. It doesn't matter how well the economy is going or how bad, tax will always be an issue. But we had a meeting and one of the things we were discussing is what key issues we could discuss with the government when the new government was formed. The tax issue was. We recognise that government still needs money to build roads, hospitals, roads, schools, all those things. So compliance. Ensuring you get good compliance, everybody pays what they're meant to pay, then the drive for government to increase and make new taxes won't be there, if they were earning enough. I think that is one of the key issues that they've got to push. We are working on some ideas. Tax is an issue, but another one of our issues that government should be working more on is petrol, fuel. Even though we agree this alliterative energy push, but we still need diesel, we still need fuel, and at the moment we are buying our fuel from Fiji at the wholesale rate. We can't afford to buy direct like Fiji does and like Samoa does, spot from the Singapore market. This is not enough storage in Tonga for the medium range tanker to come to Tonga. It won't make money on the quantity that we need so what we are going to try to push with government is to build more tankerage available in Tonga so we can get the medium range tanker to Tonga and we can get cheaper fuel. Cheaper fuel, cheaper electricity. Good for every business, every consumer in Tonga will be well off.
