First 100 Days of Prime Minister Lord Fakafanua. - LALINOA Podcast

Driving Economic Growth and Infrastructure in the First 100 Days Welcome everyone out there that's following us on our social media page with 88.6 Radio Nikolova and also allow, you know, podcasts. It's an honour always. In previous time I've had this interview with Lord Fanfani, Speaker of the House, but it's my first one today as Prime Minister of Tonga. How are you both Ave. Speaker 2 I'm good. Thank you for having me again. Speaker 1 I've kind of put our interview or conversation today into different pointers of the 100 day plan. I'm going to start off with economic growth in infrastructure. My first question, how would the Prime Minister yourself drive economic growth and job creations in the 1st 100 days? Speaker 2 In the 1st 100 days were sort of internalising and focusing on the government. I think before we look forward to much more extensive plans that are empowered by the new government budget and in July, it's important that we have a strong foundation. And so we're focusing on the basic functions of government, on service delivery and ensuring that the front office and the way we interact with businesses and people are as efficient and maximised in the 1st 100 days. So we're really focusing on maximising our service delivery and ensuring that the existing government services are providing a level of service that the private sector and the people can be satisfied with. And we think that how that translates to job creation and encouraging economic growth is that we don't want the government to be an obstacle to businesses doing business. We don't want people to waste their time waiting for government services. So there's a focus on service delivery, shortening queues, creating better access to government services by increasing the avenues for people to access, putting government platforms online, ensuring people can pay online. And that means that by having online portals and websites and online payments, even those in the out islands have access to Internet via Starlink and other services like that will be able to access government services. So apart from the stimulus packages and from the other much more extensive policies that we can make to encourage employment and growth in the economy, the least we can do at the at the moment is ensure that government is doing its best to provide a good, reliable and fit for purpose service so that taxpayers are extracting as much value as possible from the government. Speaker 1 Fit for purpose service is a good one. Now it's infrastructure. What infrastructure and public service project our top priorities in this period? Speaker 2 So a lot of the infrastructure that we're looking at is about enhancing the government services. Like I like I mentioned that's really the the target with our within our first 100 days. And so a lot of it around is around maximising opportunities and squeezing as much value as we can out of the government. So for example, we're looking at a new tax management system to increase efficiencies and reliability and board in the government's tax base. Our donors are very happy with that because we're trying to ultimately wean Tonga out of dependency. The the aid and assistance that we receive to help balance the budget and the government we're very grateful for, but it's not really a long term plan. We want to ensure that the government is self-sustaining and self supporting and part of the overall strategy is increasing our tax base by encouraging economic growth in the private sector. So the bigger the private sector, the more taxpayers they are to support the government. Unfortunately, like other small island countries, the government is the largest employer with the largest wage payer, and we're also relying on the little private sector to support the government. So we need to flip that whole paradigm. The private sector needs to be the biggest employer, needs to be the biggest provider and then the government would then rely on the private sector and that's what we're gearing it towards. And the government needs to focus on providing minimum services and protections and an even playing field for all of society and, and provide minimum protections for and safeguards for the youth, for the elderly, age care, health, education, all of that's very important. But in order for the government to be truly self sustainable and sovereign, it needs to rely on a very, on a, on a large private sector for, for employment and, and for, for that tax that that's important. So everyone's contributing towards the betterment of society and supporting the government. So it's all of society approach something that we're, we have in the back of our mind when we're approaching the policies and the decisions that we're making towards, towards infrastructure. So there there are certain infrastructures that we believe will enable some of that development. Obviously there's a focus on trade. So the work that was done in upgrading Queen Salote Wolf is very important for that. We're obviously prioritising the bridge that would help the urban expansion from local offer into the middle of data. Apple thinking about buying knee Folha in lower demand all areas that that are currently the food basket for taller, but we can explore markets or who can be expanded through to to the larger more urban areas and malfunction and Halevi and dollar dollar. So bridge is important airport upgrades runways are important for tourism. A key infrastructure then could be a constraint on enable of tourism. Its domestic airline hmm little Thai has been struggling and it's been a hot potato for many governments and something that we're looking at very closely to resolve because that has been the bane of all of our tourist operators and bravado and happy and obviously in away as well. So in supporting the tourism industry, we have to ensure that we have reliable and safe domestic service and ensure that we connect the international domestic connections so that the the flights and the transfers align. We we've experienced a misalignment in the past and part of that correction in the future will be to enable and support the tourist operators and the other islands. So let's just a little snapshot of some of the focus on infrastructure that way, very excited to work with our donor partners in achieving and unlocking some of that economic potential. Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in Government Initiatives Look for Norway at the second group of questions and, and, and this is something that you've mentioned in in many of your speeches, governance, accountability. What measures will ensure governance, transparency and accountability in government's initiatives? Speaker 2 So we're, we're strengthening the existing accountability and governance mechanisms that we have. We're working very closely with the Anti Corruption Commission to help increase their their efficiency and give them the capacity to do their their legislative role and function. At the same time, as Minister of Police, We're looking at collaborating with our existing partners and exploring ways of working with new partners in empowering the police and ensuring that they're doing their role and executing law and order, and also ensuring that people are feeling safe and protected on. On that same note, we're sharing more international Intel on illicit drugs with transnational crime. And on the governance standpoint, we're always looking for ways to increase efficiency and extract greater value. And I think that's just part of good governance, ensuring that we're delivering appropriate services at good value for money or taxpayers funding. And and of course, we, we work through our legislative function in Parliament in passing laws that courage and create mechanisms for, for better accountability. So we're, we, we started a new programme, the monthly press conference and we've tried to build a structure around that. So that's more constructive and targeted. And, and we hope that that's a mechanism that would hold us in the media accountable and, and introduced a new platform that I hope that the people in the media will find very helpful. And that is not just a press conference where the Prime Minister and his cabinet, but a press conference with the Chief sick and the CE 0 on, on political issues. You have the opportunity to question your leaders during that press conference. But at the same time, on a lot of technical and governance issues, implementing government policies, you'll have the opportunity to question civil servants directly on how they implement some of those government policies and and a more grounded approach towards government service delivery. So we're making that available and I think next week will be the first press conference that will be hosted by, by the CEOs and led by the the chief sake. So we're bringing another layer of, of accountability and and transparency to the traditional forum of, of press conferences. So that that's something we hope is an improvement and obviously we're supporting the PSC and some of the reforms. There's been a lot of complaints both internally within the public service and outside about PMS system. There is a goal to eventually replace the PMS system using technology to leapfrog a lot of those outcomes that we desired from the PMS include increasing service delivery, ensuring that we're rewarding those who are achieving their outcomes and not rewarding those who are not achieving the outcomes. And that can be done through dashboard systems, through online portals and E government is very essential to that. But we believe that technology can help us achieve greater outputs from our public service. And so a lot of that is happening all at the same time and we're just hoping that we can accelerate and see, see, see an improvement as soon as we can. Speaker 1 As a person who is, who was at the last press conference, who Lord Falconer was running extremely well, especially the timing that you've put in not just from us, the media, but also from your cabinet. And also I'm so happy cause I'm, I'm one of the few that advocates to have a press conference in, in previous times with the CEO and I'm, I'm, yeah, I'm extremely happy with that news that's going to be happening next week. My next question is how will the government monitor and communicate progress on its initiatives? Speaker 2 So each ministry is delivering a different programme on the 100 day goals. It will depend on which ministry you're following. So some ministries will report at the end of the 100 days, some ministries will be following 30 sixty 9000 day reports. And it depends on how they each ministry interacts with with the public. Some will be very vocal on their campaigns, on their social media platforms and on their press releases and others will probably wait until the end of the 100 days. So it really depends. But throughout all of that, the Prime Minister's Office will be making monthly updates, and I think that the end of the month press release that we will be hosting over the next coming months might be a useful opportunity to update the public on where we are in terms of the overall target. But each ministry will be following their own timelines in terms of the 100 days. Speaker 1 How will potential challenges be managed to fulfil promises and gold within this time frame? Speaker 2 Well, you know, it's a it's a catch 22 really. It's a double edged sword. We've put ourselves out there and we've created expectations and people expect us to deliver. So really for us it's an opportunity to show the people that we can deliver on our promises. But at the same time, we understand that there's a risk that we won't be able to deliver. And I think in terms of weighing up the benefits and the cons, it's far better for us to to put ourselves out there and ensure that at the very least we've we've begun productive work that would ultimately benefit the people, whether it would be executed on time or not. I think ultimately the intention was to hit the ground running under the new administration and government and prove to everyone that we do mean business and we we mean what we say. And hopefully in the 100 days, we'll be able to execute everything that we promised to do. Encouraging Civilian Participation and Inclusivity for All Our next group of questions, Lord Falconer, Prime Minister of Tonga, is on social inclusion and civilian participation. How will civilians being encouraged to participate in and support this national initiative? Speaker 2 It's it's an all of all of country approach. So a lot of the initiatives, depending on which, which ministry you're, you're, you're asking about involve the people. And so if I take tax, for instance, the tax department needs the collaboration in the corporation of, of the businesses who are paying tax. And we're looking forward to people being encouraged to buy from vendors who are registered for CT because that means that the government will get more revenue from CT. So that's how people can be involved is by participating in the government system. If you're going to buy something, might as well buy it from someone who will pass on that revenue and that text with the government. And that money doesn't go to random things. It goes back and gets invested in the country. So the same people who enjoy the roads that we have there for free are enjoying a government service. People want to have their electricity connected or the water connected or people who like to use the airport or the free ports that we have are enjoying a government service that's paid for by, by tax money. So that's how we involve the the population. And if it's on tourism, then tourism will have a 10 day, 20 day, 30 day, 50 day target. And I'm sure that the Minister of Tourism will be encouraging people to participate in their tourist campaigns and it might be focused around cleaning up the beaches or participating in a float or something like that. But it it's around involving the public and ensuring that we're working together towards a common goal and common target. And 100 days is about improving government services and also allowing the people to access the government services a lot more easily and more efficiently and at a cheaper, more effective cost. So it's a two way conversation. It's not a one way Rd. Everything that we're doing is for the public. The public needs to be involved and I think it's important for each ministry to communicate that and involve the public in their campaigns, whether it's in health, tourism or tax it. It needs to be an all over country approach. Speaker 1 How will the government ensure inclusivity, including for the marginalised group in its priorities? Speaker 2 Well, I think when you look talk about marginalised groups, there are certain treaties and obligations that we have to abide by and like the the rights of, of children, the rights of disability, those living with disability, the elderly, the youth, women. There are various government programmes that address all of them. And I know that the government has generally dropped the ball on some of those marginalised and vulnerable people. And it's something that we're looking at with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in terms of like how we can support and raise the level of service for, for those people. And Speaking of which, those who are afflicted by illicit drugs there, there's always been a emphasis on supply reduction, which is about reducing the amount of drugs that are coming in through the border, about law enforcement and all of that. That's that's largely supply, but little has been done on harm reduction. So reducing the harm that drugs are doing to our society, the harm that's doing to families, to people who are vulnerable to, to illicit drugs. And that's really like where education and rehabilitation comes in. So we'll be working very closely with the Ministry of Health to try and realise and the ambition around drugs. We visitation centre and all of that which has always been in the pipeline and it's always been talked about but never quite got off the ground. So apart from the work that's being done to reduce supply, which has been quite successful so far, we want to focus on the harm reduction. And obviously demand reduction is about educating people to understand before you start doing drugs that there are some very stark consequences and and ramifications, not just on the society and your family, on your village, but also on yourself as a person. If you're caught, then there could be some long time in both Dory for waiting for. Addressing Climate Resilience and Environmental Protection in Tonga You ohh fourth group of questions, and there's only one question with this group, is the environment and climate resilience. How will climate resilience and Environment Protection be addressed in the 1st 100 days? Speaker 2 Well, in the 1st 100 days, we're hoping to get some of the countries ratify the the treaty around the Climate Resiliency Fund and that is a Pacific initiative and we're very fortunate that that office is going to be in tomorrow. Speaker 1 Yeah. Speaker 2 And some there are countries who have pledged to put money into there, including from memory, the Saudi Arabia, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, they're all putting funds into that. And that fund is about increasing or funding climate resilience in in the Pacific and all the countries in the Pacific can access that fund. But apart from that, I'm also looking into much more extensive parametric insurance for the country. And parametric insurance was something that was available before COVID and then insurance market hardened and now it looks like it might be available for us again. But Lala, parametric insurance means that if there is a trigger in one of the metrics and the weather, if say the earthquake goes past, you know, I don't know, like 7.5 or something really big, or if the wind blows past a certain point and it becomes a category 3 or category 4 cyclone, parametric insurance would trigger the payout immediately. And right now we have parametric insurance with picky, but the payout isn't really a lot. I think it's like 5 million US. But if we look at more extensive market insurance around parametric, we pay a little bit more upfront in the annual premium, but then the government could potentially get like 100 or 200 million up front to help us respond and recover and rebuild and become more resilient. That's something that we can use. There are market and financial instruments that and quite some innovative work being done around that sphere in around climate around resilience and adaptation that that we can look into that would help support our government and our people become resilient. So adaptation is something that's hard to finance because adaptation is about setting building sea walls and more resilient infrastructure. Mitigation is, is the easier thing to do because we're just decarbonizing our economy. We're weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and it's all about renewable energy. And that's something that we're prioritising. And I yesterday I held a round table with all the sectors just so that we can have a conversation because in the past we haven't had that forum. And I think that's partly contributed to why we haven't achieved our renewable energy targets. And I was very encouraging to have this open conversation in the forum yesterday. And we had the new Energy Commission, the board and Total Power CEO there. We had the public enterprises was the major shareholder of Total Power. We had the Energy Department, which is on the main deck. And we also had M Ted there because they're the competent authority for for oil. So similarly to become more resilient, we are also working on increasing our oil storage. We noticed at the end of last year, we had some difficulty with getting our supply. And part of the reason for that was because of the old ship that was circulating for one of our vendors. That ship has now been decommissioned and now they're going to use a new ship to circulate the the supply and the logistics around the Pacific, including tower. Both companies are looking at increasing the storage. So speaking to to the dude depots, hopefully that is going to be something in the past. But in the long run, I'm going to be really encouraging electric vehicles and we're going to create some incentives around that to, to make it easier for people to to migrate from what is really highly vulnerable and not as good right environment to something then that might be more sustainable and suitable for, for Tonga. Because we have plenty of sun and we're flat and a one way trip from Nukualofa to the airport is only about 18 kilometres, 1820 kilometres. So a, a standard electric vehicle with a 250 kilometre battery, we'll, we'll service anyone in time is going to the airport as a taxi and travelling there 20 times a day. It's, it's going to be enough for you. You plug it in at night and wake up and you have full battery and there you go. And as far as I know from those who are using electric vehicles so far, even with the high cost of power, we haven't hung, it's still cheaper than filling up at the pump. And our ministry was of energy and climate change. We're very surprised that there were already people here with Teslas. Speaker 1 And yeah, I see. Speaker 2 It Nissan Leafs. So I think it's just a matter of education and ensuring that we have the right incentives to align people and the market would will speak for itself. People go with what's more convenient, what's cheaper. Expected Outcomes and Measurement for the First 100 Days Our a fifth group of questions should be on outcome and and impact. And and with this one, I also just have one question. What outcome I expected and how would it be measured? Speaker 2 In how long? Ohh. Speaker 1 In the 100. Speaker 2 Just talk about the hundred days. Yeah. So the approach I've made with the 100 days is I, I asked the ministries to, to bring forward initiatives that there have been sort of dropped, like where the polls been dropped and, and low hanging fruits like where the quick policies in terms of regulations or laws that you need to unlock your potential to make things move. Because as far as I see, those are just quick decisions, a quick cabinet decision or a bill that we put into Parliament passed the next 100 days that would help the government and help people. And some of the ministries have come up with some interesting programmes that were new initiatives that the Ministry of Finance sort of declined or pushed to the side, but is quite important for the operation of that ministry. So I said here's an opportunity to try and deliver that within 100 days. So that plus some of the the input that I made to some of the ministries on specific targets and goals that I believed were important for us to deliver early on. So having done that, we're now in the implementation phase where we're working right now with the consultant put all of those targets into AM and E framework. And so this monitoring and evaluation framework will help us in the coming days execute a report by the end of the 100 days. And so we'll be able to see how we've monitored the 100 days weekly or monthly and and within the framework we'll be able to evaluate the progress and whether the outputs were achieved at the end of the 100 days. So everything will be be reported transparently and be accounted for after 100 days. And that's leading us into to the new budget conversation. So understanding a lot of these priorities might roll over into the new financial period, but the outputs would definitely be public. Speaker 1 Lots of Nova, Prime Minister of Tonga. Discussing Tonga's Relationship with the US and Investment Opportunities That's the questions I have with the 100 days. Since I have you here, I might ask you a few extra questions that has nothing to do with the 100 days. I know what I'm about to ask you, was answered by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Prince the Bordeaux Galala twice at the press conference, once by yourself. But many are still speculating that this may be a decision by the United States due to the close relationship with China. Could you share your perspective on this matter and also comment on the current state of relationship between Tonga and the United States? Speaker 2 You know, it's really important to acknowledge that Tonga doesn't operate in a vacuum. Tongue is part of the Pacific Island Forum and in the forum we we have a collective voice and we have solidarity and there are certain priorities at the forum subscribes to equally, but at the same time we have bilateral relations with the geostrategic competition that's happening in our waters and in our area. We we don't operate in a vacuum and with our foreign policy or friend to all, enemy to no one. We are friends to both the East and the West. We are friends to China. We subscribe to the One China principle, and we are also friends to America. And we have bilateral relations with both the United States and with the people of China. And so the, the choice between them, MMM is, is not really a choice. Tola will ultimately look out for Tommy's interests first and even though some might have the opinion that our relations with America are strained by the recent visa restrictions, a lot of the other programmes that we have in the pipeline between the US and Tom would say otherwise. So I believe that ultimately what happened there was we were captured in the United States overall policy to protect their borders, hence why it came from Homeland Security. And it's really a lesson for of citizens to abide by the domestic rules of the countries that you visit. And I think we need to be careful because we have access to, to other countries in the world and we can't take those privileges for granted. And so we have to abide by the domestic rules of the countries that we visit. That's, that's probably the first lesson. And 2nd to that, I have to say that our government is doing the best and we're doing the most that we can to restore some of those access privileges. We're we're, we're working pretty hard and I can safely say that there is a pipeline, but ultimately we're not in control. Negotiations are being made and it's a very sensitive issue to talk about details right now. But I can say that we're we're working on it. Speaker 1 Another question is, and this is a question that it's a, it involves the personally myself as well, because I'm one of these people. For those of us, including myself, who already has a valid visa to the United States, can we or I travel to the United States using my existing visa? Speaker 2 Yeah, there's there's no change to anyone who has an existing visa. You still have access. EU visa is still valid. The the change in policy started from the 1st of January for new visa applications and only for those two those two categories. So that's a tourist visa, visitors visa and the the student visa. So there's nothing stopping anyone from applying for applying for workers visa, for instance. And maybe that's something that people need to consider. If you're going to go under a tourist visa and over stay and most probably go to work, it would be better for you if you applied under the right category. If you're going to apply the work that you have, you know, because that workers visa is still valid and and still available. So there are other categories that we are we can still apply under. But what I mean by complying with the domestic laws is make sure that you're not ruining the opportunity for everyone else. Speaker 1 Lastly, concerning the United States is you have been invited to attend the US Investment Forum in Hawaii. Could you explain more about this forum if if you can? Speaker 2 Yeah. So the State Department's hosting a investment forum in Hawaii and this invitation was sent out to all the leaders in the Pacific. I was personally invited by the deputy Secretary Landau, and I accepted the invitation and reciprocated. I asked him to come to Tala. And so he's he's accepted that invitation. We look forward to hosting him here, but that's part of our overall approach to engaging America. On the diplomatic front, there's much to be discussed. Visa is just part of it. But part of the constraints to economic growth in Tonga is the lack of foreign investment. Right now we're at 0.5, half a percent of GDP and that's part of the the issue why the economy so stagnant, why they were lack of jobs, because there's a lack of businesses to to give job opportunities and and stimulate the economy. And so United States is very keen to work with us and bring some some heavy hitters in the private sector. So we look forward to meeting with big companies that are everyday names like Amazon or Google and and even airlines like United Airways. So a lot of that is an opportunity for us to collaborate and work with some giants in industry to bring more opportunities to tower, whether it's a direct flight to America or a Google cable to give us more reliability and cheaper Internet, or maybe have direct Amazon deliveries to Tongo or even a data centre. If we can set up a data centre in Tonga that would bring more jobs and more faster Internet orders or whatever. Like there's, there's a lot of opportunities. There's a whole world out there and I'm very happy that the United States is facilitating a lot of that development so we can have those important conversations and it really aligns with our ambition for economic growth and empowering the private sector. And so government is very keen to have those conversations and, and, and see what what kind of outcomes we can get from this forum in Hawaii. Prime Minister's Public Health Update and Final Message Lord Favour, Prime Minister of Tonga, thank you for the time. Thank you for always agreeing. I know you're extremely busy as the Prime Minister of Tonga right now. I'm just, you've got the, the public or you know, I'm listening right now with this. Anything that you wanna say to them Now before we finish our conversation, I'll give this time to you. Speaker 2 You know that there's a apparently there's a, there's a new bug that's going around. I think it's something Nefo virus or something like that. It's from bats. Speaker 1 And somebody's eating another bat somewhere. Speaker 2 But you know, I've received an update from the Ministry of Health and WH O and it seems like that the risk for for tonne and the Pacific and South East Asia is, is very low. And so I just want to assure people that there there is little risk and, and not to worry. And also more close to home, there's the small outbreak of for typhoid. And we're working at addressing the root causes most likely driven by living conditions because of of poverty and the location that this has come out of. So we're working towards containing typhoid. Ministry of Health are doing a very good job at contact tracing and very good at that contact. Speaker 1 Tracing practise from the COVID. Speaker 2 Yes. And so it seems like even though there's there's this potential outbreak, but it's it's under control and it's being managed. And I just want to assure the people that we're doing our best to not only address and contain this, but also look at some of the root causes so that we don't have a repeat of tough week outbreak in our country. So I wish everyone good health and thank you for your patience and look forward to everyone's collaboration and cooperation for our first 100 days the government. Speaker 1 Thank you very much, Lord Favour, not Prime Minister of Tonga and that that that's it. Our conversation for today. I'll let you know with the Prime Minister. Lord Favour, again, thank you very much. I'll first interview is you as Prime Minister and I wish you luck for the next 100 days. Thank. Speaker 2 You Lala, it's definitely an honour and privilege for me to be on loudly now again. Glad to come back any other time you want me to be a new show? Speaker 1 Better.