Meeting of the Council of Ministers of 16th of December of 2010
IV CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERMENT
SECRETARIAT OF STATE OF COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
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PRESS RELEASE
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of 16th of December of 2010
The Council of Ministers met this Thursday, 16th of December of 2010, in the Council of Ministers Meeting Room in the Government Palace, in Díli, and approved:
1. Decree-Law about an extraordinaire Payment of one month basic salary to the public service
The IV Constitutional Government intends to carry out a policy for the preservation of the human resources attached to the Timorese State’s activity, and thus considers it important to acknowledge and to encourage the good performance of its public servants.
This is an equitable measure, even though of exceptional nature, that tends to bring the public servants closer to other national workers, placing them at the same level.
2. Decree-Law about the Statutes of the National Institute for Training for Teachers and Education Professionals
This diploma regulates the terms of the creation, organization and functioning of the Statutes of the National Institute for Training of Teachers and Education Professionals (which its creation is predicted in the new Organic Law of the Ministry of Education).
The objectives of this Institute are: to answer to the enormous challenge of requalification of the teachers in function, as determined by the Statute of the Teaching Career; promote the necessary investigation on best practices with the view of teacher training; develop the curriculums of all training modalities; and guarantee capacity and efficiency in providing its services in the national territory, for the prosecution of an Education and Teaching System qualification as underpinning educational success of the students.
3. Decree-Law on the Environmental Licensing Regime
The present diploma approves the Environmental Licensing Regime that responds to the need for negative environmental impact prevention, according to project complexity and taking into account the social and economic reality of Timor-Leste.
This regime concedes the attribution of environmental licences and their enforcement, as a logical consequence of the Environmental Impact Analysis procedure of the projects, thus creating an integrated procedure and a simplified procedure for negative environmental impacts and pollution control of the projects.
It is highlighted that the country has, since its restoration of independence in 2002, demonstrated enormous worries and sensibility to the environmental issues. The Constitution establishes, in article 61, not only the right to a healthy human living environment and ecologically balanced, but also the duty to environmental preservation and protection for the good of future generations. At the international level, Timor-Leste has been present in several Conferences and ratified several International Conventions, celebrated under the scope of the United Nations – such as the United Nations Framework to Combat Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Convention for Biodiversity (UNCBD) the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Vienna Convention for the protection of the ozone layer and the Montreal Protocol for the reduction of substances that destroy the ozone layer.
Fulfilling the international obligations from the UNFCCC, the State has now the duty to implement a group of strategic measures directed to respond to the environmental needs related to Climate Change in the country, where it is also proposed to carry out the necessary measures for the effective sustainable development of Timor-Leste.
For this motive, and even though, under the UNFCCC, Timor-Leste as a developing country is not bound to reduce its green house gases, and having also very low emission levels (around 0.02 Tonnes per capita per year), the State proposes itself to voluntarily reduce them.
The Council of Ministers also analysed:
1. Decree-Law on the creation of the Timor-Leste oil company
Having already defined the regulations of activities connected to the oil sector, the Council of Ministers analysed the proposal to create the Timor-Leste oil company that will detain and manage, with a managerial framework and principles, the property assets of the Timor-Leste State, in the oil sector.
2. Decree-Law on the creation of the Investment and Development Fund
With the objective of fighting difficulties businessmen have at acceding to financing – an economic and social reality confirmed by a recent study from the International Financial Corporation and the Asian Development Bank – the IV Government intends to create a National Investment and Development Bank.
The process to create this financial instrument to support the private sector (and consequently to a model of sustainable development for Timor-Leste) implies the fulfilment of a group of standards necessary for the full functioning of the bank. The creation of a fund related to investment and development that may allow for, on the short term, support to the private sector, was one of the options by the Council of Ministers.
