The new UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu has been sworn in at a small ceremony in New York.

United Nations Secretary –General Antonio Guterees swore in Ms Utoikmanu as the Under –secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Her appointment was announced in April by the United Nations Secretary –General Antonio Guterres .

Ms. ‘Utoikamanu takes with her a wealth of national, regional and international experience at various senior leadership levels.

Prior to her appointment, she was Chief Executive Officer of Tonga’s Ministry of Tourism. She served in Tonga’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 2002, then as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2005.  She subsequently served as Tonga’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she also represented the Pacific Islands Forum from February 15, 2005, to late April 2009.

Born in 1959, Ms.'Utoikamanu  holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics (1980), and a Master of Commerce in Economics (1983) From the University of Auckland in New Zealand.