Government of Timor-Leste

The Government met on May 14^th, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, for the "Jornadas Orçamentais", previously called "Yellow Road Workshop".

Present at this seminar, organized annually by the Ministry of Finance, was the Prime Minister, Dr. Rui Maria de Araújo, and other members of the Government, along with their general directors, financial directors and planning and finance staff, to establish the National Priorities for the year 2016 in a coordinated and adequate manner for the planning and implementation of development programs, in particular the Strategic Development Plan for 2011 - 2030, as well as to establish the guidelines of the Tax Package.

In his introductory note, the Prime Minister asked participants to concentrate on important aspects and leave aside superfluous costs and speeches, in order to achieve the proposed objectives in the definition of the main objectives to prepare for the next year’s State Budget.

The Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance made presentations on planning and annual plans, economic analyses and results, inflation, employment, fiscal sustainability and taxes.

In the afternoon, the discussions focused on the Fiscal Envelope for the General State Budget in 2016, which included topics such as the management of the Petroleum Fund (revenue and expenditure), the preparation of the General State Budget, budget improvements and budgetary analysis of fiscal sustainability and, at the end, relevant proposals were submitted in order to achieve the objective.

Education, health, agriculture (irrigation) and basic infrastructure (maintenance, roads, public buildings, water and sanitation) are the priorities for the year 2016.

At the end, the Prime Minister stressed that the "Budget Seminars" reflect the dynamics that the Sixth Government wishes to implement, based on team work.