The Ministry of State Administration signed a cooperation agreement on May 18th, with the Portuguese Municipality of Penafiel, during the Fourth International Conference on Decentralization and Local Government.
Signed by the Vice Minister for State Administration, Tomás do Rosário Cabral, and the Mayor of Penafiel, Antonino Aurélio Vieira de Sousa Moreira, the agreement with this Portuguese municipality aims to develop and strengthen friendship and cooperation relationships between the populations of the municipalities of Penafiel and Lautém.
The cooperation between both municipalities also extends to socio-economic, cultural, social and educational areas, and also includes the development of internship programs and the provision of technical and material resources for projects.
The Municipality of Penafiel will join the other two Portuguese municipalities, Grândola and Lagoa, which, on March 2013, also signed a cooperation agreement with the Timorese Municipality. Within the Fourth International Conference on Decentralization and Local Government, which was held during this month, all three municipalities (Grândola, Lagoa and Penafiel) had the opportunity to travel to the eastern tip of the island, where they were welcomed by the administration and their officials, and have also visited Lautém Reference School and some places with touristic potential.
This year, and for one month, the municipality of Lagoa sent two technicians to empower human resources along with the Lautém administration in the areas of information technology and local administration (protocol, civil protection, activity planning and budgeting). At the same time, both municipalities are about to finish their campaign to collect books in order to create the Lautém municipal library.
With the signing of this new agreement, all three municipalities will join forces to optimize the use of resources and cooperation, towards the development of Lautém.