The Eight Constitutional Government marks today, June 22, two years in office. These have been two years of intense work, in which the Government faced several constraints, such as the need, soon after taking office, to quickly restore political and financial normality and the liquidation of state commitments with impact on the recovery of the economy, with the approval of the Government Program and the General State Budget of 2018.
The Prime Minister, in his swearing-in speech, said that “the Eight Government began its mission at a decisive moment for the development, modernity and progress of our young Democracy, in fulfilling the great objectives of sustainable development and the great national plan to transform Timor-Leste into a Rich, Strong and Safe Country”.
As such and despite the political context and the challenges faced, the Executive began its work in an active and constructive way, implementing the vision suffraged by the People and embodied in the Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030.
After a cycle of negative growth in 2017 and 2018, the national economy recovered in 2019 and grew by 3.4%, according to World Bank.
The year 2020 brought new constraints for the Government, with the non-approval of the General State Budget and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which in addition to the direct impacts – with more than 9 million infected and more than 470,000 dead worldwide -, also brought the risk of a global economic recession and the loss of employment in numbers that put at risk a large majority of the world’s population.
Despite the financial difficulties imposed by the implementation of the duodecimal regime, the Eight Government is succeeding in winning the fight against COVID-19. Timor-Leste recorded a total of 24 confirmed positive cases of people infected with the new Coronavirus and four probable cases. All patients recovered and since May 15 there are no active cases in the national territory. Despite the good results, the Government continues to work to prevent new cases of infection of the new Coronavirus in Timor-Leste.
Furthermore and to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the national economy and safeguard employment and purchasing power of the population, the Government has put in place a vigorous package of measures for socio-economic stabilisation, with various support for the population and the private sector. This stabilisation phase will serve as a foundation for the implementation of the economic recovery plan that is currently being drawn up, to be brought to the Council of Ministers in about 60 days and with its implementation to begin in 2021. These two phases will be followed by the development phase, which is also interconnected and based on the previous ones and will begin to be implemented from 2022.
Based on this new political understanding, the Government intends, in permanent dialogue and cooperation with all State bodies, to meet all the challenges and achieve the objectives it has set itself, to ensure the maintenance of peace and social stability, recovery, growth and economic diversification, with an increase in national productivity, sustained by improvements in well-being, in the system of education and vocational training, in the national health system, but also in the flexibilization and facilitation of private investment in Timor-Leste.