The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and its staff are not involved in the partnership between Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries and Beijing Machinery Repair Company Limited.
The ministry clarified this in a statement.
The statement said tractors donated by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to the Kingdom of Tonga were given to MAFF, and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Tonga who handed these tractors to the Government of Tonga, has nothing to do with MAFF’s decision on how to use the tractors.
“It is the intended purpose of MAFF to assist more local growers to boost agricultural production by assisting the newly established BMRCL with agreement on a more affordable and readily available tractor service to the local growers.”
“It is not the intention of MAFF to compete with the local tractor operators but to supplement the need for more service providers on land preparation and at the same time to provide services on repair and maintenance of these tractors in Tonga. One of the major challenges in Tonga is the lack of technicians who can provide services on repair and maintenance of tractors in Tonga. Part of the agreement with BMRCL is to provide these services on repair, maintenance, as well as training of local technicians which is lacking in Tonga.”
BMRCL was approved a business license under the Foreign Investment Act in September 2017.
The partnership between MAFF and BMRCL was approved by Cabinet Decision 1198 on 3 November 2017 and signed.
It became effective in February 2018.
Duty and taxes apply to the contract between MAFF and BMRCL. Under the Investment Cooperation Agreement between MAFF and BMRCL it states that, “BMRCL shall be responsible for all taxes and CT or any other charge payable by law over the whole business operation”.
The Tokomololo facility was not given by MAFF to BMRCL. It is currently rented by BMRCL, and the Company is directly paying the annual rental fee to the owner of the land.