Government of Timor-Leste

The Governments of Timor-Leste, through the Minister of State Administration, Jorge da Conceição Teme, and Australia, represented by the Ambassador Peter Doyle, signed a Cooperation Agreement related to the National Program for Suco Development (portuguese acronym PNDS). The signature of the Agreement took place on May 9^th, at its hall, in Caicoli.

Under this Agreement, the Australian Government has put aside an amount of AUS$45.000.000, for the support to the National Program for Suco Development in Timor-Leste.

Previously, Australia had already supported this program, from 2011 to 2014. The signature of this Agreement, thus, provides continuity to the cooperation between both Governments.

The support provided is, above all, on advisory services, aiming to reinforce the corporate system, allowing PNDS to distribute allowances to Sucos, and to train over 400 people, which will allow technical, social and financial facilitators of PNDS to exercise their positions in the districts.

Jorge da Conceição Teme also referred that this support will be a complement to the amount foreseen by the Government to the next eight years.

The Ambassador of Australia in Timor-Leste, Peter Doyle, reinforced the commitment of his Government to the support of PNDS for an extra four years, with the aim of creating economic opportunities to the population, particularly to the ones of rural areas.