Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak led a meeting today, June 2, with United Nations Resident Coordinator Roy Trivedy, World Bank representative Macmillan Anyanwu and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative Munkhtuya Altangerel. Also attending the meeting were the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Leite Magalhães and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Hanjam.

During the meeting, Government members shared the political vision on priorities for Timor-Leste, translated into concrete measures and actions, in order to coordinate and capitalize the support given by development partners to the Government’s strategy for national socio-economic recovery.

The Prime Minister said that the Government has four key short term priorities, which aim to make the state more efficient by implementing planned reforms, to define the major areas of strategic development, which are directly related to the socio-economic recovery plan, to set the budget ceiling for sustainable development and, finally, to capitalise on the support of the international community in order to combine efforts for the success of the Government’s program.

Taur Matan Ruak stressed that the Government is currently focused on the national stabilisation programme to respond to the epidemiological situation of COVID-19, the effects of national disasters and socio-economic impacts.

The Head of Government also explained to development partners the Government’s vision for national development and for improving the living conditions of the population, which covers five main areas – social, economic, infrastructure, institutional and environmental. In the social area, the aims are raising well-being, inclusion, and the provision of public services to citizens. In the economic area, allowing increased productivity and the creation of sustainable and non-seasonal work. In the infrastructures the objective is to ensure national connectivity. In institutional reinforcement, the objective is provision of efficient public services, the reduction of the state’s weight and the improvement of legislation. At the environmental level, it is essential to prevent the exploitation of natural resources from degrading the environment and using these resources in diversifying the economy, so as to expand the state’s sources of revenue.

Development partners reiterated their readiness to support the Government in achieving the defined objectives, to participate in the implementation of the measures and to mobilise human and financial resources.