Vice Minister of Finance, Sara Lobo Brites, on Thursday, 17 February, chaired the fifth  Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting for the Timor-Leste Trade Single Window System powered by UNCTAD ASYCUDA which is also known as the Timor-Leste National Single Window.

Unlike the previous 4 PSC meetings, limited to PSC members, i.e. Ministry of Finance,  Customs Authority, ASYCUDA officials and the National Project Implementation Team, this 5th meeting welcomed other government agencies. The representatives from the Directorate General for ASEAN Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation also attended the meeting as observers.   

Vice-Minister Brites in her remarks commended the good progress of the project to date,  whilst also urging all government agencies to be proactively involved in every phase of the project’s implementation  to ensure that milestones foreseen for the year 2022 can be fully executed.  This project would in turn simplify, facilitate and reduce the cost and time of doing business in the country.

To date, access to the Timor-Leste National Single Window has been rolled out for TradeInvest, the Ozone National Unit of the Secretariat of State for Environment, the National Directorate for External Commerce of MTCI, APORTIL I.P and SAMES I.P. Works are ongoing to continue rolling out the Single Window system and the relevant OGAs should be connected in the next few months.