Meeting of the Council of Ministers of March 5, 2019
Presidency of the Council of Ministers
Eighth Constitutional Government
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Press Release
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of March 5, 2019
The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace in Dili and approved, with amendments, the proposal for a Government Decree presented by the acting Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Agio Pereira, on the first amendment to Government Decree no. 2/2018 of February 21 that regulates the procedures of private investment. With the approved Legal Diploma, the applications for Investor's Certificate submitted during the validity of Law no. 14/2011, dated September 28 and still pending, are evaluated and decided by the Investment and Export Promotion Agency of Timor-Leste, IP (Tradeinvest) under the terms of said law and the proposal to issue the Investor Certificate shall be sent by the Executive Director of TradeInvest to the member of the Government responsible for the coordination of economic affairs. This proposal for a Government Decree aims to clarify doubts regarding the regime applicable to applications for the issue of an Investor's Certificate submitted, up until December 31, 2017, while the former Private Investment Law was still in force and that had not been decided by Tradeinvest.
The Council of Ministers continued its analysis of the proposal for amendment to the Subsidiary Agreement with the Government of Australia for the Roads for Development (R4D) Phase II program submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Works. This program of the Government of Timor-Leste, begun in 2012, has the technical support of the Government of Australia and the International Labor Organization (ILO) and aims to provide social and economic benefits to rural populations through management and improvement of the conditions of the national rural road network. Under this project, 552km of roads were rehabilitated, laboratories for soil testing were set up in several municipalities and actions were taken to develop the capacity of the private and public sector for the management, rehabilitation and construction of roads. During the second phase, this program aims to support the establishment of an Interministerial Road Forum, the development of the Rural Roads Policy and the implementation of a standard system of design and construction of rural roads to ensure their quality. The Council of Ministers granted full powers to the Minister of Public Works, Salvador dos Reis Pires, for the signature of said agreement.
The Minister of State Administration, Abílio José Caetano, presented the proposal for a Government Resolution, approved by the Council of Ministers, on the implementation of the Strategy for Administrative Decentralization and Installation of Local Representatives, reaffirming the commitment, the will and the Government's determination to resume and boost the implementation of the strategy of administrative decentralization and installation of representative bodies of Local Government. This Government Resolution foresees a program of activities that includes the elaboration of legislation, revision of the statutes and maps of personnel of the Municipal Administrations, formation of human resources, construction, maintenance or requalification of infrastructures and elections of representative organs of Local Government, with the objective of providing more effective public services, increasing civic participation, developing the private sector in rural areas, and establishing strong state institutions throughout the country. ENDS