Investment for Growth: A Review of Foreign Direct Investment Frameworks in the Pacific (2024)

This flagship 2024 report—developed under the Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI)—assesses the readiness of Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu to attract and retain foreign direct investment. It analyzes five core areas: entry conditions, investment guarantees, investor residence, monitoring systems, and promotion strategies. 

The study finds fragmented policies, excessive investment restrictions, and limited strategic direction in most countries, including Tonga. It recommends modernizing laws, reducing reserved activity lists, improving investment guarantees, adopting national investment policy statements (NIPS), and empowering investment promotion agencies (IPAs) to actively pursue FDI in line with national development goals.