The Minister of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Agio Pereira, met on September 13, 2019, at the Government Palace in Dili, with Burkhard Hinz, head of the Urban Development and Mobility Division for East Asia and the Pacific, of the KfW Development Bank.

The KfW Development Bank, founded in 1948 in Germany, financed in 2006 the “BERLIN-NAKROMA” ship, which currently ensures a regular service of transport of passengers and goods between the capital Dili, Oé-Cusse and Ataúro. Currently KfW, on behalf of the German Government, is co-financing, with the government of Timor-Leste, a second vessel intended to replace the current ship and meet the needs of the country, in the transport of persons, vehicles and goods along the north coast of the island, in order to further increase mobility and strengthen the country’s economic development.

The new passenger boat, which is expected to start operating in 2021, is being built by the Dutch shipping company Damen Shipyards and will have a width of 16 meters, a draught of 3.3 meters and a length of 67.3 meters, a deck of a height of 4.8 meters and will reach the maximum speed of 10 to 12 knots and will have a transport capacity of more than 380 people.

During the meeting, Burkhard Hinz stressed the commitment of the KfW Development Bank with the partnership with Timor-Leste for the construction of Nakroma 2 and expressed the availability of the KfW group to Cooperate with Timor-Leste in other technical cooperation projects in the maritime transport sector.

The Minister of State also reiterated Timor-Leste’s commitment to the construction project of the second passenger boat and also expressed its contentment with the possibility of other cooperation projects with KFW in the future.