“ First thing first, so to begin with, one must ask, what has Tonga got to trade with, in order to warrant the appointment of a Tongan trade commissioner to NZ, Mr Maka? This is especially so in view of the fact that Tonga's economy is largely if not entirely consumer-led, service-based and far from being producer-driven, innovation-charged.
Even when specifically targeting Tongan growers and exporters, how have the real key "supply-versus-demand" problems be mediated and worked into a two-way sustainable and equitable but profitable trade and exchange relations equation? What about the current state of the art, which effectively but necessarily and really requires optimum level of knowledge and skills, technology and capital for such an ambitious yet imagined task ahead?
What about the more culturally-induced problems, where there is requirement for a radical shift in attitudes from a condition subsistence economy ('ikonomika fakakai mo fakafuakavenga / fakatauhifonua) to a state of cash economy ('ikonomika fakatau mo fakatupupa'anga / fakapisinisi)?
How on earth would you address this? Must we adopt a total, bottom-up, front-to-back rather than a partial, top-down, back-to-front approach to these problems? Is it not in the raising of problems and not the presentation of solutions that real solutions to actual problems be found?
I suggest that you please read the brilliant comments by S. A. Mokofisi on the article "Tonga coastal fish population decline," with bearings on many of the problems reflected upon above. ”