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Tonga’s Trade Portal officially launched

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13th September, 2019 Tonga’s Trade Portal was officially launched this morning at Tanoa International Dateline Hotel, Nuku’alofa. The event began with a National Validation Workshop on Tonga’s Trade Portal, on the 10th – 13th September 2019.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development (MTED), Ms. Pauline Siasau said, “The idea was that the existence of such ministry will promote a more accountable and transparent environment by providing information about government’s policies, programs and activities. With that aim, a Trade Portal was designed.”

She said this was developed under the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) Plus Agreement with the support and funds from the Government of Australia and New Zealand in contracting with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to assist signatories in the designing and establishing of National Trade Portals to facilitate trade and investment.

“The launch of this Trade Portal embodies our ministry’s services where the public and the pacific can keep track of information that are trade related. This has to do with our improvement and commitment. The portal is a way for us to publish our legislations and to notify other member countries that are a party to the PACER Plus to provide their comments, as well as their legislations for our comments.”

The 11 signatories are Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Ms. Siasau also said the focus of this Trade Portal is based on delivering the project results, validate data and information on the products and legislation of national stakeholders and awareness training to the public.

Five products have been selected to initiate on the portal are as follows;

  • Importation of meat products,
  • Importation of vehicles,
  • Exportation of fresh fish,
  • Exportation of pumpkins, watermelons and
  • Exportation of handicrafts.

“With the development of this portal, we have set up step by step procedure to make it easier and transparent for the public to have access to any information of importation and exportation of this five products. During the workshop, we have nominated reps from government line ministries to become information officers to collect all information that are related to the procedures of the products. The information gathered by these information officers will be distributed and published on the portal for the public and members of the parties.”

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She told the gatherings that the launch of this portal is more than just an information portal but a linkage to all information released by relevant stakeholders and the member countries under the agreement.

Ms. Siasau expressed her sincere gratitude to the UNCTAD for their assistance and ongoing support towards this project.

The event was hosted by the MTED in collaboration with the UNCTAD.

ENDS

Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change & Communications.


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