The Ministry of State Administration and Territorial Planning (Portuguese acronym MAEOT), promoted a Conference about “Friendly Cities between Australia and Timor-Leste” on the 27th and 28th August, in the Maubisse sub-district. The purpose of the Conference is to “reinforce the relation of friendship from the People to the People”.

In the opening session, the Minister Arcângelo Leite indicated that “this conference comes in the sequence of the conference carried out in 2003, organized by the local Government of the city of Melbourne in Victoria. At the time, the chosen theme was ”Work together for the benefit of Timor-Leste” and that event served as an embryo for the Conference “Friendly Cities between Australia and Timor-Leste”, that has already been carried out two times in Timor-Leste, in 2008 and 2010”.

Arcângelo Leite made it known that, nowadays in Australia, there are several municipal cities that already have friendly relations with Timor-Leste cities, especially in the districts and sub-districts. The Minister expects that this initiative contributes to a mutual help between the people of these two nations and is a good opportunity to learn to become self-sufficient and to get rid of that dependency culture.

The Conference ended with a few resolutions: to carry out future conferences every five years, opening of a website to ease communication and work together with the more relevant ministries and to facilitate access of the members to the visa and to tax exemption.

During the Conference, the President of the Republic, José Ramos-Horta and Peter Heyward, Australian Ambassador to Timor-Leste, made their interventions. Also present were the district and sub-district Administrators, representatives from their Australian “Friendly City”, representatives from the Timor-Leste “Friendly City” and other guests.