Siosiua ʻUtoikamanu

Siosiua Tuitalukua Tupou ʻUtoikamanu is a Tongan politician and former Cabinet Minister. He was Tonga's Minister of Finance from 2001 to 2008.

ʻUtoikamanu was governor of the National Reserve Bank of Tonga from 1991 to 2003.[1] He was appointed as Minister of Finance in a cabinet reshuffle in January 2001.[2] Shortly after being appointed he faced an impeachment motion in parliament over the loss of money from the Tonga Trust Fund.[3] In his role as head of customs, he was responsible for the Tongan government's efforts to ban the independent newspaper the Times of Tonga.[4]

As Finance Minister he pursued a program of economic reform, including the introduction of a goods and services tax.[5] In 2005 efforts to reform the public service by introducing new pay scales with increases only for senior public servants led to a six week long strike which shut down and threatened to topple the government.[6] The strike resulted in 60 to 80 percent pay increases for most public servants.[7] ʻUtoikamanu responded to the resulting budget pressures by proposing further privatisations[8] and public service cuts.[9] Following the 2006 Nukuʻalofa riots he negotiated a loan from China to rebuild the city's CBD.[10] The loan later led to significant controversy, with a parliamentary committee finding it was illegal and that the funds had been misappropriated.[11][12] He was forced to resign as a Minister in February 2008 after refusing to cooperate with other members of the Cabinet.[13][14]

After leaving politics ʻUtoikamanu served as director of the Pacific Islands Centre for Public Administration at the University of the South Pacific.[15] In July 2016 he was elected to the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority.[16] On 26 May 2022 he was appointed to the Privy Council of Tonga.[17]