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RNZ, 20th June 2018
Tonga's budget will meet the country's needs despite its focus being on long term recovery from February's Cyclone Gita, the country's finance minister says.
Pohiva Tu'ionetoa expects the budget to be passed by Thursday despite debates over the government books going into the night.
He has earmarked $US48 million in his $US293m budget for cyclone recovery.
Rebuilding a stronger and more resilient Tonga is the budget's theme, Mr Tu'ionetoa says.
"We have our normal priorities like the education, health and so forth and development projects that will be decided like climate change projects and so forth but the impact of the cyclone, that's the main focus."
The minister said parliament had been sitting well into the evenings so budget could be passed before parliament rests for Ha'apai Agricultural Day this weekend.
