PM opens facilities, announces support for Niue

Prime Minister Bill English has today opened new facilities and announced a range of initiatives to support tourism and improve services for local households in Niue.

“In recent years, tourism in Niue has gone from strength to strength, with tourist numbers more than doubling since 2009,” Mr English says.

“The new facilities we have opened at the Matavai Resort today will help establish Niue as an event and conference venue, with spin-offs for tourism operators across the island.

“Niue has established a busy tourist high season, and these new facilities are part of a strategy to spread tourist visits over the year, so that impacts on the environment are sustainable and benefits for the local economy are ongoing,” he says.

Mr English has also announced New Zealand is providing $5 million to support Niue connecting to the proposed Manatua submarine cable between Samoa and French Polynesia.

“This is an opportunity for Niue to greatly improve the speed and reliability of its internet, with benefits for tourism and public services, particularly in health and education.” 

A further $5 million will go towards boosting the island’s renewable energy generation.

“This funding pay for installing 600 kilowatts of solar panels with battery storage, improving existing systems to make them safer and more reliable, and also installing 200 kilowatts of solar panels donated by Japan.

“The end result will be a state of the art generation and storage system for Niue which will increase renewable energy generation from 13 percent currently to 40 percent by 2018, with significant cost savings and reduction in diesel use.”

The Prime Minister made the announcements in Niue as part of the 2017 Pacific Mission.