On November 1, at the Bexco Convention Center in Busa (South Korea), the Government of Timor-Leste, represented by the Minister of Finance, Emília Pires, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Kevin Rudd, signed a Note of Understanding on Australia’s support regarding the implementation of the Fragile States’ New Deal.

Emília Pires said that “donors have given support to Fragile States, through their agencies or a particular world agency, but often this assistance is not effective with regards to helping solve their problems and achieve their objectives. For this reason, the Australian Government intends to support the State of Timor-Leste directly so as to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”.

According to Kevin Rudd, “Australia continues to support Timor-Leste in areas such as agriculture, sanitation and human resource training in the financial system, since it has been doing it since 1999 regarding the establishment of governance and support systems in the areas of defense and security.

The New Deal is very effective in terms of developed countries, since it changes the behavior of donors in relation to aid for Fragile States. This has been demonstrated, over time, by the support given donors, despite the fact that this support has not been adequate to the system of each State.