TONGA: PM speaks on finance minister's resignation
Updated
The resignation of Tonga's Finance Minister does not mean there will be any changes in the country's economic direction, according to prime minister Fred Sevele. Long-serving Finance Minister Joshua Utoikamanu's resignation was accepted by the King earlier this week. So far he hasn't spoken about the reasons behind his decision. However Prime Minister Sevele says there will be no change in the direction of Tonga's economic reform program, although he admits to having had some differences with Mr Utoikamanu.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speakers: Tongan Prime Minister Fred Sevele
SEVELE: I guess in any government they're bound to be some disagreements between the Prime Minister and some ministers and you try and resolve those as quickly and as amicably as possible, but things happen in every government, we've just got to move on.
HILL: Did this happen between you and Mr Utoikamanu at any time?
SEVELE: Well there were differences of opinion on some of the ways of achieving quicker economic reform, and as I said that always happens and make the most of it and move forward.
HILL: Who takes over as finance minister now?
SEVELE: At the moment whenever there's a minister away the Prime Minister looks after the portfolio, but definitely the last time I was away it was Afu'alo Matoto, the Minister for Public Enterprises, and he's the one that is going to take over.
HILL: What would you say to outsiders who are wondering if this has any implications for Tonga's economy or politics?
SEVELE: No I'll say look at the way we've been doing things. This fellow Matoto who's going to take over some time next month, he was Secretary for Finance in the 1970s and then he became deputy GM at Westpac for some years, and then Managing Director of Tonga Development Bank, so he has the experience and the background in finance. So no, there's nothing to be concerned about in that direction.
HILL: Is there anything to be read into his resignation as to the direction of the economic reform program or Tonga's economy at all?
SEVELE: No the direction will be the same, I mean we're all moving in the same direction, get greater economic growth and he has done a remarkable job, things are moving quite nicely. The critics of course will say no, but I estimate a growth of two to three per cent just in this past year. The result from the private sector has shown that and in our revenue collection it shows up that there has been growth, leaving aside of course inflation, which as you know is part and parcel of the development of just about every economy in the world now with rising prices of oil, and we are of course so dependent on that.
HILL: That's actually increased the cost of electricity in Tonga by a substantial amount; the cost of bread's gone up by about 35 per cent. So that's going to have a bit of an impact on ordinary people isn't it, those price rises?
SEVELE: Certainly, I mean it happens everywhere, I mean Fiji had late last year an increase of something like 20 per cent in their electricity, and they're much more fortunate than us. Whereas they have hydro electricity, we don't. Ours is all fueled by oil and diesel and we can't escape the rising prices there.
HILL: Can this economic growth that you're seeing translate into lower prices eventually?
SEVELE: I hope it will Bruce and the other thing of course was some of the rising prices like say the price of bread, that should spur the growth of domestic supplies of foodstuffs to replace some of the bread that people have been eating. So in some ways it may be a good thing that we have two-thirds of our fertile land that is not being utilised.
