Government of Timor-Leste

The members of the Eight Constitutional Government met on August 6, 2019, in the auditorium of the Ministry of Finance, in Dili, for the preparation of the General State Budget (OGE) for 2020, following the last meeting of the Council of Ministers, in which they fiscal ceilings, national priorities and the timetable of the 2020 OGE were defined.

The three priority areas of action, approved by the Council of Ministers are the development of social capital, focusing on education and training, health and supply of drinking water and basic sanitation infrastructures; Economic development with a commitment to encouraging private sector investment, job creation, economic diversification and development of the agriculture sector; and increased national connectivity with the development of ports, airports, rural and urban roads and the development of national logistics with the creation of processing and storage infrastructures and the improvement of maritime, land and air transport.

The fiscal ceiling was set at 1.6 billion US dollars and was determined to fulfill the three central objectives for the 2020 OGE, presented by the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, in his speech in Budget Days, last June. These are “achieving an annual growth rate of more than 7%, decreasing the poverty rate by 10% and lowering the unemployment rate, in order to meet the forecast of the Government Program, of creating 60,000 new jobs annually, with the expectation of achieving the creation of 300,000 jobs until the end of the mandate”.

The OGE 2020 is being prepared on the basis of five fundamental principles, fiscal sustainability in the medium and long term, alignment with national priorities, budgetary execution capacity, the absorption capacity of the local economy and the quality of Budget.

During the meeting, the members of the Government also discussed the challenges and the state of play of the budgetary implementation of each Ministry relating to the 2019 OGE, which reached the present day a total of 46.8% of execution. The Government set as a goal to reach the 75% of the budget execution by October.

There were also iscussed possible legislative interventions necessary to implement the guidelines for the elaboration of the proposals for the General State Budgets for the period 2020 to 2023, relating to the expansion and improvement of the supply of water and sanitation networks as well as the increased access of populations to decent housing.

The Ministry of Finance will hold a working session with Directors-General, Directors of Administration and Finance, focal points for the budget planning of the State institutions, tomorrow, August 7, in the auditorium of the Ministry of Finance to disseminate the processes and procedures for the preparation of the 2020 OGE and distribute the disaggregated ceiling to all ministerial lines, autonomous fund services and all institutions of the state.

The OGE 2020 should be approved in the Council of Ministers at the meeting on September 27, 2019 and is expected to be sent to the national parliament on 15 October. The discussion, voting and promulgation should take place during the month of December.