Thomas Remengesau junior

Tommy Remengesau

Thomas Esang "Tommy" Remengesau, Jr. (born February 28, 1956 in Koror , Palau Islands ) is a Palaui politician. He was President of Palau from 2001 to January 1, 2009 and has held this office again since 2013.

Career

The son of Ferista Esang Remengesau and Thomas Remengesau, Sr. was born as the oldest of eight children. His father was already politically active and temporarily took over the office of head of state in what was then the colony of Palau.

Remengesau studied at Grand Valley State University in Allendale , Michigan in the USA. In 1984, at the age of 28, he was elected senator to the Palau National Congress. This made him the youngest Senator ever in Palau. In 1992 Remengesau was elected Vice President of the island state and took office on January 1, 1993. At the same time he became finance minister and in this office he ensured the island's financial stability. Through his work, Palau became a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in 1998 . In 2000 he was finally elected President. He was sworn in on January 1, 2001. Exactly eight years later to the day, Johnson Toribiong succeeded him as head of state . Remengesau saw it as the main task of his presidency to make Palau more independent of the USA and to promote tourism to a limited extent.

On November 6, 2012, he defeated Toribiong in the runoff election for the presidency with around 58% of the vote and was sworn in as president again on January 17, 2013.

In 2014 he received the Champions of Earth Award .

Web links

• Official biography ( memento of November 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )