On July 25th and 26th, just after the CPLP’s Summit of Díli and the official visit of the Prime Minister of Portugal to Timor-Leste, the Government gathered, at the Díli Conventions’ Centre, with its Development partners, for the annual meeting, with this year’s subject: “Strategic Development Plan: Management for Better Outcomes”.
In this Timor-Leste Development Partners’ Meeting (TLDPM), was approved the SDP’s Matrix – a tool aimed at raising and ensuring the implementation of the established policy.
This document was the outcome of two days of work, in which several analysis and debate sessions took place, on the four strategic development sectors, namely the Economic, Social, Infrastructure Development, Governance and Institutional Strengthening sectors, which are, above all, directly in line with the four pillars of the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2011-2030. The sessions integrated the members of Government, National Parliament and development partners, including representatives from international organizations, Civil Society and Private Sector.
The SDP, which, “sets the framework in order to turn Timor-Leste ,until 2030, into a country with medium-high incomes and an healthy, educated and living in safety population” was launched at the TLDPM three years ago, back in 2011. Two years later, the Government announced, at the same meeting but in 2013, a Mechanism for Coordination of the Development Policies, in order to facilitate the implementation of this Strategic Development Plan (SDP) for the country.
This year, and aiming to ensure the continuation of the implementation of the established goals, the SDP Matrix, agreed by all the parties involved, sets direct responsibilities in order to ensure the accomplishment of the goals.
The Prime Minister, right at the opening session, framed the quick development registered by Timor-Leste, in the last year, at local, regional and international level, acknowledged by the biggest world organizations.
The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advisor for Timor-Leste, Noeleen Heyzer, highlighted that, “Despite being one of the youngest nations, Timor-Leste has already made impressive contributions to regional and global development”, advancing that “Timor-Leste is now above the average of countries in the Medium Human Development group”. Noeleen Heyzer also outlined that “Currently, Timor-Leste may be one of most petroleum-reliant nations in our region but one that has wisely established systems to use the financial revenues from the oil reserves, in order to support development across generation. It has used its petroleum resource revenue which now stands at USD 16 billion to fund its development budget”.
The Prime Minister, at the end of the meeting, warned about the need of a continuous adjustment on the SDP 2011-2030. Therefore, on the Communique that refers the outcome from the two days of the TLDPM, was defined an intermediate review for the final document, as it is considered a “document in progress” and “in order to ensure that it continues to provide the structure for national development until 2030”.