Government of Timor-Leste

The Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers and

Official Spokesperson for the Government of Timor-Leste

Díli, August 31, 2011

Timor-Leste holds regional conference for International Extractive Transparency Initiative, “EITI and Beyond”

Delegates from more than thirty countries from around the globe descended on Dili, Timor-Leste to discuss transparency and accountability “Beyond the EITI” at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference held August 25 - August 27. The EITI process is one that is all-inclusive between Governments, the Operators, Civil Society and other stakeholders to bring transparency and accountability to the resource sector.

Timor-Leste was the first nation in the Asia Pacific region and the third country in the world to become EITI compliant and is now considered to be leading best practice innovations in resource management. By announcing initiatives “Beyond the EITI” with the launch of the five pillars of the Timor-Leste Transparency Model which extends the principles of EITI for better, more inclusive, resource management, Timor-Leste has begun a global dialogue on how the EITI principles can be expanded to a 360 degree value chain of fiscal accountability promoting good governance and better results for the People. Regional neighbours and countries from around the world are now joining the process to reach EITI compliance including Australia and Solomon Islands, with the latter making a formal announcement at the Dili conference.

Highlights of the Conference included one of the regions most lauded economic experts and academics, former Minister of Finance of Indonesia and current World Bank Managing Director of six regions around the globe, Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Dr. Mulyani was a special guest and Keynote speaker at the official opening and participated throughout the event with a hands-on approach, interacting with delegates and attendees. A video presentation by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the original architect of the EITI who was in Dili a day earlier, was showed commending Timor-Leste for their leadership and promoting EITI as a cause essential to good governance, transparency and accountability t0 all Nations managing resource wealth, both developed and developing.

The Prime Minister of Timor-Leste opened the conference working sessions by challenging participants to find new solutions and better ways of working. He encouraged delegates to make transparency and accountability the cornerstone of resource management and the foundation of sound social and economic policy, especially those countries on the journey emerging from fragility and conflict.

Prime Minister Gusmão also offered a special welcome to the countries of the g7+, 17 fragile and conflict-affected nations united for the first time in history a year ago to promote peacebuilding and statebulding amongst their own States and to improve the aid effectiveness of their development partnerships. The g7+ officially attended the meeting as a forum to contribute to the conference, lending their experience on how transparency can assist in the consolidation of the State, the building of better institutions, the strengthening of peace and reduction of poverty.

The Secretary of State Ágio Pereira noted “We as a nation were very proud to be one of the first countries in the world to achieve EITI compliance. Now we are even prouder as a nation to put our ingenuity to the test to go beyond. Introducing the Timor-Leste Transparency Model was a milestone for our State which included the launch of the Timor-Leste e-Procurement Portal which is a key component of a suite of four on line transparency tools that track our resource revenue from the time it first flows from the operators to the time it reaches our State budget, to public tenders, awards and finally the results. While all our work is a work in progress and process; we applaud our own people for their determination, the participants in the Conference for sharing their experiences, Civil Society and Resource Operators for their valued contributions and lastly the EITI for leading the global initiative to continually evolve and enhance the resource sector.”