22nd July, 2020 - At the presence of the Minister for Communications (MEIDECC), Hon. Poasi Mataele Tei and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Tonga, H.E Mr. Tetsuya Ishii, the Chief Executive Officer for MEIDECC, Mr. Paula Pouvalu Ma’u and the Construction Manager for Dai Nippon Construction, Mr. Keiji Nagai signed the official Handover Letter of the New Studio Building of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC) under Japan’s Nationwide Early Warning System (NEWS) Project, at Fasi-moe-Afi this afternoon.

Hon. Minister Mr. Poasi Tei, H.E Mr. Tetsuya Ishii, CEO Mr. Paula Ma'u, JICA Team & TBC Board Members.

Commenced on March 29, 2019, the project was proposed to be completed by April this year but due to COVID-19 it was deferred to the end of May 2020. Japanese Ambassador to Tonga, HE. Mr. Tetsuya Ishii said the completion of the new TBC facility is one of the significant parts of the NEWS Project. “The total cost for the NEWS project Grant Assistance is 2.8 billion Japanese Yen or TOP$56 million. Its ground-breaking ceremony was held in March, and the progress towards the complete realization of the whole project has been delayed by Tropical Cyclone Harold and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Today, it is my greatest pleasure to witness the completion of the construction work for the TBC’s new building, and to handover this portion of the NEWS project to the Hon. Minister for MEIDECC to allocate to its assigned purpose. I do hope that by the end of this year, the difficulties and challenges that we have faced will pass and we will be able to celebrate the total achievement of the whole NEWs Project.” He said the project is expected to help strengthen disaster risk reduction, improve domestic telecommunication quality and protect cultural heritages such as video archives stored by TBC. CEO for MEIDECC, Mr. Ma’u expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government and the people of Japan, JICA, Joint Venture of Yachiyo Engineering Co. Ltd, Japan Telecommunications Engineering and Consulting Service and Kokusai Kogyo Co. Ltd and the Contractors the NBK Consortium for the constructions and ongoing assistance to complete TBC’s new studio building. He said this is a milestone work with the primary purpose of delivering radio and television programs to entertain, educate and inform the people of Tonga.

He said this is a milestone work with the primary purpose of delivering radio and television programs to entertain, educate and inform the people of Tonga.

ENDS

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