Government of Timor-Leste

The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães and European Union (EU) Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Andrew Jacobs, met, on February 5^th, 2021, at the Government Palace, in Dili, to analyse the current situation of the Multiannual Indicative Program, for the period from 2021 to 2027’ preparation.

The Diplomat presented the general lines of the program to the Minister, stating “that it is being prepared in order to correspond to the needs and priorities of Timor-Leste” and “that it does not intend to enter in sectors where there are already cooperation programs of other  development partners”, “so not to cause overlap of means”.

The Multiannual Indicative Program for the next seven years is expected to be finalised by mid-2021 and will focus on supporting good governance, sustainable development and green economic recovery. During this period, the EU intends to support Timor-Leste in economic diversification, in the development of the private and youth sector, in trade and regional integration, in the production of renewable energies and climate action, in the reform of public sector management and in social inclusion and nutrition.

The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers informed the European Union Ambassador  about a set of legislative interventions, two of them are already approved, and one still under discussion by the National Parliament, as an important incentive to intensify trade relations with abroad and as a factor of promoting foreign investment. On February 1^st, the National Parliament approved the Law Proposal draft authorizing the Government to amend the Code of Civil Procedure and on February 2^nd, approved Timor-Leste’s accession to the United Nations Convention on the recognition and the execution of foreign arbitral awards. The Voluntary Arbitration’s Legal Regime, also included in this legislative package, has already been overall approved and is now under detailed consideration by Committee A, before returning to the Plenary for the final global vote.

The Minister also addressed the creation, in August 2020, of the Commission for the Coordination and Monitoring of Institutional Reforms, such as the reform of public administration, the reform of public financial management, the administrative decentralization and the judicial reform. The four major institutional reforms have the common objective of improving the management and functioning of the public sector.

This commission is responsible for establishing the direction and overview of reforms or programs, for coordinating their consistent design, programming and implementation, promoting synergies and cooperation between reforms, removing obstacles and overlaps between reforms, providing political support for reforms and ensuring good performance and timely implementation of the reforms.

The Minister also presented a general framework of the Public Administration Reform Program, led by him, and which is being implemented with the aim of transforming public administration,  focusing on central administration structures. This reform aims at improving service delivery processes, strengthen accountability and performance incentives, improve human resource’s management and development, review public administration functions and structures and improve administrative services provided to citizens and businesses.