The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, on behalf of the Government of Timor-Leste, is participating in the 10th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), which started today, March 27th, and runs until the 30th, in Bangkok, Thailand.
During the first day of the event, Minister Fidelis Magalhães delivered a keynote on the subject “Accelerating the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia and Pacific”, highlighting the current situation in Timor-Leste concerning the pandemic and the strategies used to address the challenges.
The Minister emphasised that this forum takes place at a moment when the world is “confronted with several global crises, including the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic” and that “the challenges of climate change and the war in Ukraine have further aggravated these crises, making it even more difficult to meet the sustainable development goals by 2030 in the Asia-Pacific region”.
“To address these urgent issues”, Fidelis Magalhães noted that “it is essential to ensure that the most vulnerable populations, including children, women, people with disabilities and the elderly, have access to food, water and health care”. Hence, the Government has implemented several strategies, such as the social protection programs “Basic Food Basket and Mother allowance, punctual payments in cash, the National Social Protection Strategy, the Consolidated National Action Plan for Food Security and the Timor-Leste Health Sector Nutrition National Strategic Plan 2021-25”.
The Minister argued that “to prepare a skilled, healthy and competitive workforce”, “it is vital to transform energy and food systems in a green and inclusive way that improves resilience to future shocks”, as well as “creating green and blue jobs, diversifying the economy, and investing in essential livelihoods such as health and education”.
Fidelis Magalhães also assumed that “an enabling environment for private sector investment is essential for a small island economy like Timor-Leste” and that “opportunities exist to bring in investments for private sector growth, including public-private partnerships for the blue economy, climate finance and carbon credits”.
The Minister ended his remarks by assuring that “Timor-Leste is committed to accelerating its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and that “with the support of the international community, we can emerge stronger from this crisis and build a more sustainable and prosperous future for our people”.