TLDPM opens with speech by Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão
The Development Partners' Meeting of Timor-Leste opened with a speech by Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in which the Prime Minister conducted an analysis about the past, present and future of the young nation.
The Past
On a profound evaluation about the most important historical events of Timor-Leste, the Prime Minister reminded the delegations that the conflicts faced in the past resulted from external factors and were not originated by domestic issues: " The conflicts in our past were not between kingdoms and ethnicities, but instead between the Timorese and all those who came from the other side of the sea, the foreigners" the Prime Minister said.
The Present
The Prime Minister reviewed the measures undertaken by the country towards a sustainable building in Timor-Leste since independence, with reference to the National Development Plan and the need for institutional capacity building which was non-existent in 2002.
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao highlighted the negative impact of some foreign developing support provided to the country as one of the major reasons for the challenges faced by Timorese Institutions in recent years. The Prime Minister also identified three key factors that contributed decisevily to the fragility of the Timorese state, especially after the 2006 crisis: incapacity to address the real causes of the problems; lack of political will by State institutions to cooperate in the search for solutions and the unrestrained tendency by leaders to spin the situation politically.
In a speech addressed to the development partners, the Prime Minister recalled that the embargo placed by the United States to Timor-Leste does not help the country to move towards economic and financial development. The Head of Government added that all efforts have been made to overcome the problems namely by establishing Annual Action Plans which identifiy the country’s social and economic priority policies. Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão also highlighted the on-going reform of State financial management in all State institutions: " We are of confident of this outcome as we have already achieved superior economic growth – economic growth has increased by an average double digit amount since 2007. In 2008 it was 12.8% and in 2009 by 12.2%."
The Future
In a speech of around thirty minutes, the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão also mentioned the challenges and the plans the Government has .for the future. The Prime Minister has requested the development partners to invest in the country and thus contribute to the development goal set for the year 2020 that "people took as a reference”.The new National Development Plan is the formula found by the Government to help Timor-Leste to move out of the group of fragile states: " We are determined to take Timor-Leste out of the list of fragile and poor States and make it a medium income country in 15 to 20 years. This is the future we will be deciding for ourselves", concluded the Prime Minister.
TLDPM gathers more than 40 delegations from development partners of Timor-Leste to Díli, where the meeting will continue until the end of the day.
To see more pictures about this event, please click here: Photo Album
