The Government of Timor-Leste, represented by the Secretary of State for Professional Training and Employment, Rogério Araújo Mendonça, and the Government of Japan, through its Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Tetsuya Kimura, signed a memorandum of cooperation for the implementation of a technical internship programme for Timorese citizens in Japan. The ceremony, which took place on October 8th, 2024, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Dili, was attended by the Minister of State Administration, Tomás do Rosário Cabral, as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. 
The Secretary of State emphasised the importance of this agreement, which will open up new internship and employment opportunities for young Timorese in Japan, and stressed that it resulted from a joint effort between various entities. He also emphasised the decisive role of Timor-Leste’s Ambassador to Japan, Ilídio da Costa Ximenes, who, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Japanese Ambassador to Timor-Leste and SEFOPE, contributed significantly to the signing of this Memorandum of Cooperation. 
During his speech, Ambassador Kimura expressed his “great satisfaction at witnessing the materialisation of this project”, which followed a “high-level meeting held in Tokyo in December 2023”, in which “the then Japanese Prime Minister and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão reaffirmed the importance of human resource development for the sustainable growth and development of Timor-Leste”. 
The Japanese Ambassador added that he hopes “the Timorese trainees will be able to bring the experience and knowledge they have acquired in Japan to Timor-Leste, thus contributing to the country’s stability, growth and prosperity”.
The technical internship programme with Japan joins other labour mobility initiatives that Timor-Leste has developed with countries such as Australia and South Korea, although focusing on technical training and knowledge transfer.