Government of Timor-Leste

The Consultative and Executive Councils of the Government's Economic Structure examined the latest developments in the country's economic reform in the areas of Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Fisheries, Tourism and Manufacturing Industry, on April 24th.

This is the third time that the Minister of State, Coordinator of Economic Affairs and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Estanislau Aleixo da Silva, has brought together the institutions, whose work and provision of services he monitors and assesses. These meetings will be held on a quarterly basis.

The Minister highlighted the fact that the National Tourism Policy had already been developed “by way of good coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Hernâni Coelho, said that “we need to promote Timor-Leste tourism abroad, and it is necessary to develop a package on the field of tourism.”

For the Minister responsible for this area, Francisco Kalbuady Lay, promoting tourism abroad implies an integrated work, that is to say, developing the infrastructure, in coordination with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications. He also added that, in order to receive tourists, the support of the State Secretariat for Employment Policy and Vocational Training (in Portuguese SEPFOPE) will be required in order to develop human resources training in the hospitality area.

Minister Alfredo Pires stated that the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is carrying out a study of onshore oil and gas exploration. For this purpose, the National Petroleum and Mineral Authority (NPMA), TIMOR GAP and Timor Resources (a subsidiary of the Australian company NEPEAN) signed two Production Sharing Contracts for oil and gas exploration in the territory of Timor-Leste, on April 7th. 

The meeting was held at TradeInvest's facilities and the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Marcos da Cruz, the General Director for Industry and Cooperatives of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Environment, António da Costa, the General Secretary of Corporate Services of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications, José Pereira Mestre, and the General Director of SEPFOPE, Jacinto Barros Gusmão, were present.