The Minister of Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, participated in the High-Level Policy Dialogue with Kanni Wignaraja, the UN Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator, Director of the UNDP in Asia and the Pacific, Professor Ha-Joon Chang, a renowned development economist from the University of Cambridge and the United Nations Nasoins Unidas Timor-Leste Resident Coordinator, Roy Trivedy.

This virtual policy dialogue titled “Imagining the Future of Timor-Leste with Strong Industries in Ocean Economy”, was led by the UNDP Timor-Leste Resident Representative, Tuya Altangerel.

During the discussion, Minister Gomes shared insights on the current Timor-Leste’s macroeconomic situation and its projection for the coming years, in order to position Timor-Leste in a growth trajectory that will bring an inclusive, resilient and sustainable development.

Minister Gomes also underlined that the advices from these two renowned figures will be extremely important at this point in time as Timor-Leste aspires to be an upper-middle income country by 2030, regardless of its structural problems, and how we can build back better after three economic recessions in the last four years, compounded the twin shocks, i.e., Covid-19 and the devastating floods in April.

The discussion also centered on a number of important issues such as human development, decent jobs for youth, environmentally friendly policies including the renewable energy. These discussion topics were also aligned with the Government’s key fiscal policy priorities for 2021 and the Economic Recovery Program which places “People” at the center of development.

Accompanying Minister Gomes in this dialogue, Chief of Staff to the Minister, Jo Monteiro, Director General of the External Resources Management and Mobilization, António Freitas, Director General of Planning and Budgeting, Jose Alexandre de Carvalho including members of the INFF Secretariat.