The members of the VIII Constitutional Government met on June 2nd , 2021, in retreat, in the Ministry of Finance auditorium, to review the budget execution and the implementation of the programmes projected for 2021 and for the preparation of the 2022 General State Budget (GSB).
The meeting started with the presentation of the report “The drivers of growth and sectorial transformation in Timor-Leste”, by the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Timor-Leste, Roy Trivedy, and by the study’s lead author, Camilla Saccetto, an economist from the International Growth Centre (IGC). This study was prepared by the IGC, at the request of the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Magalhães, in partnership with the Office of Administrative Reform of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and was supported by the United Nations.
The report on potential drivers of growth and sector transformation in Timor-Leste aims to outline priorities and provide policy recommendations to guide Government policies to achieve greater economic diversification, in non-oil sectors, and put the country on a more sustainable development path in the medium to long term.
At the end of the presentation, the report was symbolically handed over by Roy Trivedy to the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak. The members of the Government praised the IGC and the support of the United Nations in the production of this report, having highlighted the importance of its recommendations for the definition of policies that favour economic diversification.
This was followed by a presentation by the Minister of State Administration, Miguel Pereira de Carvalho, on the status of the administrative decentralisation policy implementation process. This process has as its objectives, the development of the private sector of the economy in rural areas, the affirmation of the institutions of a strong State throughout the national territory, the increase in the quantity and quality of public goods and services provided to citizens and the creation of new opportunities for democratic participation. The strategy is based on three phases, territorial de-concentration, which is currently underway, institutional administrative decentralization and territorial administrative decentralization. In order to fulfil the proposed objectives, the Minister presented a set of measures to be implemented by the members of the Government responsible for the respective areas.
After a period of discussion on the previous themes, the Minister of Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, presented the current state of execution of the 2021 State Budget. The actual execution rate of the 2021 State Budget, excluding commitments and obligations, until March 28th, has already reached 22%, despite the fact that Timor-Leste is going through an outbreak of COVID-19, which has forced the imposition of sanitary fences and compulsory confinement.
The Minister of Finance also presented the schedule for the preparation of the 2022 General State Budget. The Budgetary Days, the seminar where the priorities for the State Budget are annually defined, should take place on June 29th. The draft Law Proposal of the 2022 State Budget should be approved by the Council of Ministers on September 17th, and delivered to the National Parliament on October 1st. Hearings between the Government and the National Parliament should begin at the end of November and the overall and detailed discussion will take place in December.
This was followed by a presentation on the evolution of the preparation and implementation of the main projects in the area of infrastructures and a summary of the budget execution in this sector by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Planning and Territory, José Maria dos Reis and the Minister for Public Works, Salvador Soares dos Reis Pires.
At the end, the Prime Minister made a summary of the content of the presentations and asked the members of the Government to, despite the difficulties and challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, gather all efforts to advance with the programmes projected for 2021, mainly strategic projects such as fibre optics, the construction of the Port of Tibar Bay and the rehabilitation of the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport.