IV CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
SECRETARIAT OF STATE OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
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PRESS RELEASE
Council of Ministers meeting of March 16, 2011
This Wednesday, March 16, 2011, the Council of Ministers met at the Council of Ministers’ meeting room in the Government Palace, Dili, and approved:
1. Government Resolution that appoints the Timor-Leste General-Commissioner for the International “Expo 2012 Yesou, South Korea”
The Council of Ministers appointed the Minister of Tourism, Commerce and Industry, Gil Alves, to be Timor-Leste General-Commissioner for the “Expo 2012 Yesou, South Korea”.
This international exposition will take place between May 12 and August 12 of 2012, in South Korea, proposing a sustainable vision of the diversity of oceans and maritime coasts.
Timor-Leste will participate in this event with the objective to continue promoting its image and national identity beyond borders (after the success verified with the “Expo 2010 Shaghai China”), as well as the potential of economic development that it has).
2. Decree-Law that regulates the Human Capital Development Fund
The Human Capital Development Fund, defined in the State General Budget (SGB) for 2011, is part of a human resources development plan that involves a large public investment effort in multiannual training plans.
It is a finance mechanism appropriate to the nature of multiannual programs, where the expenditure doesn’t expire at the end of the financial year. In this way, there is a reduction of the tendency to accumulate expenses at the end of the year, allowing activities associated to the programs and projects to carry out throughout the year in a continuos way and without any interruptions.
This Fund has the objective of increasing project planning, management and execution and simultaneously ensure a bigger transparency of public expenditure related to expenses with human resources training and development, whether through the creation of scrutiny mechanisms of programs, projects and actions to be financed by the Fund or by allowing the accounts rendered in relation to the project’s total cost.
3. Decree-Law regarding the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry’s Organic Structure
After more than three years of the establishment of the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry Organic, it is necessary to adjust the organizational structure to the new economic and social reality of the country. A strong development in the international and national trade has been verified, and, just as in tourism, has more than tripled, as well as the encouraging indices of small and medium sized companies, specially the ones related to the construction sector. Management of Human resources and materials regarding the new responsibilities in the country’s public supply determine the need to reorganize the services.
This diploma, in practice, makes the correspondence between the general-directions to the sectors under the MTCI responsibility, one for Tourism and another, for economic reasons, for all the corporative issues, namely for the planning and financial management of human resources and materials, IT, procurement and logistics.
4. Amendment to the Decree-Law that Approves the Procurement Legal Regime
The present diploma has the objective of including two new bodies (Administration Council for the Infrastructures Fund and the Administration Council for the Human Capital Development Fund) in the Procurement Legal Regime. These two new bodies are responsible for the procurement procedures regarding infrastructures and human capital development projects and programs, allowing in this way, advantages in terms of responsibility and transparency concerning the public expenditure used for the development of the Nation.
5. Decree-Law that establish the Procurement National Commission
The National Procurement Commission comes from the approval of a more efficient and effective procurement system that involves new bodies participating in the process, such as the National Development Agency and the Large Projects Secretariat.
Its purpose is to provide an improved procurement service to the ministries and remaining public bodies, namely regarding large infrastructure projects and to reach the appropriate transparency that a State procurement process should respect, which is why it is important to approve the National Procurement Commission, defining its structure, as well as its competences and attributions.
6. Government Resolution about the transitional period in the Timor-Leste National Police
The present diploma extends the transitional period and the activity of the Timor-Leste National Police (PNTL) Promotion Commission, for two years only.
This extension is due to the need to give continuity to the selection of PNTL police officers, recommend their promotion to the posts to be filled, consolidate the results already achieved in the police training and command which have already been promoted and to continue with and implement the results from the Promotion Commission work entirely.
The current diploma, also appoints Longuinhos Monteiro for the office of PNTL Comander-General, with the post of Commissioner, and Afonso de Jesus for the post of PNTL 2nd Comander-General, for the duration of the transitional period.
7. Government Resolution about the appointment of the General Council President for the Timor-Leste National University
The present diploma appoints Madre Guilhermina Marçal as General Council President for the Timor-Leste National University (UNTL). This appointment’s main objective is to provide a dynamic interaction between the Rector’s Office and the University General Council allowing a larger and better development of this higher education Institution.
This appointment was made after analysing a proposal from the Rector and remaining members of the UNTL General Council.
8. Proposal of Resolution about the Approval of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joining the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Timor-Leste joining the ASEAN is one of the IV Constitutional Government priorities. For this to be a reality it is necessary to work on the harmonization of the internal legal disposition with the agreements and conventions from this Organization, as well as the identification of the priority instruments that Timor-Leste may adhere to. It is also necessary to reinforce human resources training, to promote the creation of the necessary staff to join in and participate in this International Organization.
The schedule to join ASEAN will serve as a guide to prepare Timor-Leste to become a member state, covering several areas of the country’s internal issues that need to be debated and resolved.
9. Resolution that approves the dispatch of a support team to Japan
Following the approval of the Resolution last Saturday, in the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, regarding the dispatch of a support team to Japan, the Government has also decided to attribute a sum of five hundred thousand American dollars to help, in the immediate, the Japanese people and authorities facing the serious situation that the country is currently facing, after violent natural disasters and a nuclear crisis.
The Council of Ministers also analysed:
1. Decree-Law that approves a new Commerce Registration Code and amends the linked legislation, Decree-Law that approves the amendments to the Commercial Societies, the Law of the Cooperatives and the Legal Regime of the Public Companies / Decree-Law that approves the legal regime for the firms and the denomination of collective persons and other entities
The three diplomas presented for the Council of Minister’s appreciation are regarding the business sector and have as a general objective the consolidation of Timor-Leste’s commercial registration reform, which began with the approval, last December, by the Council of Ministers, of the diploma that allowed the immediate constitution of societies (“company within the hour”)
It is specifically intended to simplify or even extinguish, formalities that currently exist in the system, making it easier for the investor and the realization of businesses within national territory without compromising the legal security.
2. First Amendment to the Decree-Law about the Carrier and Positions of Direction and leadership in the Public Administration
The Decree-Law n.o 27/2008, August 11, approved the Regime of Carriers and Positions of Direction and leadership in the Public Administration, establishing basic rules for the Public Service organization. With the implementation of the Public Service Commission as an impartial and exempt body responsible for the strengthening of the Public Service, is necessary to do some adjusts to the Carrier Regime to harmonize it with the remaining legislation concerning the Public Administration human resources management.
3. Proposal of Decree-Law about Decentralized Development Programs I and II
The Decentralized Development Program represents an essential measure for the strengthening of the district economy and for incentivising the creation and development of local companies, and for the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures in the districts. The implementation of similar programs in previous years allows for a more efficient execution of this measure.
The present diploma includes the rules related to the Decentralized Development Programs I e II, as a construction works adjudication procedure up to the sum of one hundred thousand American dollars and five hundred thousand American dollars, respectively, to local companies based in the districts and sub-districts.