The members of the 8th Constitutional Government gathered in retreat, on August 3rd, 2020, in the auditorium of the Ministry of Finance, for a preliminary analysis of the measures proposed by the Commission for the Preparation of the Economic Recovery Plan.
The Commission, led by former Minister of Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, took office on June 18th, with a mission to, in a maximum of sixty days, recommend to the Council of Ministers the measures to be approved and the actions to be taken for the recovery of the national economy, properly systematized and condensed into an Economic Recovery Plan.
On July 29 ͭ ͪ, 2020, the Government approved a package of four short-term measures, submitted by the Commission, for the economic stabilization phase, because, although the measures adopted by the Government, during the term of the State of Emergency have contributed to secure jobs and support companies, as well as to keep consumption levels of employees and families, it is still necessary to keep or create new measures in 2020, which may allow to satisfy the citizens’ basic needs, to keep as many jobs as possible and, thus, the income they generate, to support self-employed workers and all those who belong to sector commonly referred to as informal sector, either by their precarious nature of employment relationship, either due to the fact that they do not make contributions to the social security system and, ultimately, to keep as many companies on the market as possible. .
57 days after taking office, the President of the Commission for the Preparation of the Economic Recovery Plan made a preliminary presentation, to the members of the Government, on the diagnosis made to the national situation and on the medium and long term measures, soon to be subject to the Council of Ministers appreciation, which aim to minimize the COVID-19 impact in national economy and lay the principles for, in the first phase, foster economic recovery and, in the second phase, stimulate the economic growth.
During the presentation, Rui Augusto Gomes stressed that people are the centre of the Economic Recovery Plan, and that’s way, it is intended to put people in the development process. The plan will include defined indicators and goals, in order to facilitate the measures application’ implementation and monitoring.
The President of the Commission began by presenting, to the Government members, data on the international situation, the context of Timor-Leste and the COVID-19’ impact at national level.
Rui Augusto Gomes presented a set of measures, that, more than recover the economy in the post-COVID-19, aims to solve the existing structural problems.
Among the guiding principles and objectives of these measures, stands out the re-balance between physical and human capital expenditures, by increasing, throughout the current legislature, the resources dedicated to the improvement of human capital, the support to the national private sector development and consolidation, mainly through the creation of conditions that could frame and guide the country’s economic and social development, the creation of the maximum possible of new jobs, better paid and with greater social protection, therefore more productive, and the national production dynamization, particularly industrial production, in a process of replacing imported products by national products.
The Economic Recovery Plan, presents more than 60 measures, divided by priority areas and sectors of intervention: agriculture, tourism, housing, human capital (education, health and social protection); and institutional reform.
The forecast budgetary needs and the Economic Recovery Plan funding sources were also presented.
Rui Augusto Gomes ended his speech by saying that “Paths are made by walking, in order to improve the population’ well-being”.
The Commission for the Preparation of the Economic Recovery Plan will also make a preliminary presentation during the Budgetary Days seminar and, soon, the report with the measures that are part of the Economic Recovery Plan will be formally delivered to the Council of Ministers, for consideration of the measures and actions to be implemented for the national economy recovery. END