Presidency of the Council of Ministers

Spokesperson of the Government of Timor-Leste

Ninth Constitutional Government

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Press Release

Meeting of the Council of Ministers on February 13th, 2024

The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace in Dili and approved the draft Government Resolution, presented by the Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion, Veronica das Dores, for the appointment of Dulce Natividade da Cunha and Solange de Fátima Borges, on the proposal of the member of the Government responsible for social solidarity, Sansão Gomes representing the employers, and Almério Vila Nova Gouveia representing the Timor-Leste’s workers, as members of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Social Security, for three years. This decision is based on their recognised training, technical capacity, necessary experience and suitability demonstrated for the position.

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Three presentations by the Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment, Gastão Francisco de Sousa, followed, concerning:

The state of play and political and legal options regarding the process of acquiring Timor Telecom.

The state of play and schedule of activities for the project to install the submarine fibre optic cable that will connect Dili city to Darwin and Port Hedland. The presentation highlighted the strategic importance of this project as a crucial infrastructure to facilitate faster and more accessible ‘internet’ connectivity, which will boost economic growth, strengthen social development and improve the population’s quality of life.

The National Spatial Planning Policy, which covers the set of actions promoted by the Public Administration to ensure the rational organisation, use and management of the territory, with a view to its enhancement, aiming for balanced, integrated and sustainable development and a general improvement in the quality of life. The main instrument of this Policy is Territorial Planning, an interdisciplinary exercise in coordinating and integrating public policies, which is expressed spatially through a Spatial Planning Model. This model defines the spatial organisation of a given territory (Country, Municipality, and City), guiding and controlling public and private interventions in that territory. The National Spatial Planning Plan defines the strategic framework for national spatial planning in conjunction with the Strategic Development Plan (SDP), coordinates sectoral policy instruments with a spatial impact and guides territorial planning at the municipal level. The Municipal Spatial Planning Plans define, following national guidelines, the strategic framework for managing and using the municipality’s territory and its land use regime.

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The draft Government Resolution presented by the Minister of Health, Elia A. A. dos Reis Amaral, on the Integrated Plan for Health, was approved.

This Government Resolution aims to integrate the various existing health programs into a single plan to provide primary, secondary and tertiary health care in a coordinated and integrated manner throughout the country, establishing mechanisms to ensure universal coverage of health care in an integrated and proximity-based manner, especially in areas of the country that are difficult to access.

The integrated Health Plan aims to contribute to improving health services and ensuring widespread access to quality care by maximising efforts to guarantee efficiency, transparency, and professionalism in the management of financial, human, material and logistical resources, as well as health infrastructures and equipment.

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The Council of Ministers has decided to grant full powers to the Vice Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs and Minister of Tourism and the Environment, Francisco Kalbuadi Lay, to sign, on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Protocol for Timor-Leste’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), scheduled to take place during the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC13), which will take place from February 26th to 29th, 2024 in Abu Dhabi.

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Lastly, the Council of Ministers has decided to grant full powers to the Secretary of State for Cooperatives, Arsénio Pereira da Silva, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises of the Republic of Indonesia to encourage and promote and contribute to the establishment of mutually beneficial relations in the development of cooperative and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) capacities between the Parties. The areas of cooperation envisaged under this memorandum of understanding include capacity building for developing a policy and institutional framework through an exchange of experts for developing cooperatives and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The memorandum also aims to promote partnership and cooperation projects between institutions in both countries and between cooperatives and MSMEs. It also provides for business potential surveys and feasibility studies to identify opportunities for developing cooperatives and MSMEs. Other initiatives include promoting training and exchange visits to improve technical and management skills for cooperatives and MSMEs and strengthening the programme activities of cooperatives and MSMEs through regional cooperation. END