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Press Release
Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers on September 18, 2020
The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace, in Dili, and approved the Government Resolution draft, presented by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Hanjam, concerning the establishment of the Policy Review Committee structure (known by the acronym CROP) for the 2021 General State Budget.
The CROP is responsible for ensuring the strategic allocation of resources from budget submissions, in order to achieve the commitments and goals contained in the strategic documents and to analyse the plans implementation capacity for the 2021 financial year. The CROP is chaired by the Prime Minister and also comprises the Vice Prime Ministers, the Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, the Minister of Finance and the Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion, as an observer.
The CROP is split into four Sectoral Sub-committees, the Institutional Sector Sub-committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, the Social Sector Sub-committee, chaired by the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion, the Infrastructure Sector Sub-committee, chaired by the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Planning and Territory, and the Economic Sector Sub-committee, chaired by the Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs.
These Sub-committees will examine sectoral budget submissions, simultaneously, starting on September 21st, and then, all sectors conclusions will be reviewed, by the Policy Review Committee.
The 2021 GSB has an aggregate ceiling of US$ 1.6 billion, approved at the Council of Ministers meeting on September 2nd, 2020. After the CROP’s analysis, the 2021 GSB Law Proposal draft will be subject to approval by the Council of Ministers, to be delivered to the National Parliament by October 15th.
Lastly, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mrs Adalgiza Magno, announced to the Government members that, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Report on States of Fragility 2020, published yesterday, September 17th, Timor-Leste has left the list of fragile states. The report notes that, in Timor-Leste, “fragility has decreased in all dimensions, except security, which has shown a slight increase” and highlights the “significant decline in economic and environmental fragility”, which has contributed to Timor-Leste’s exit, for the first time, from the list of states considered fragile. END