On October 8th, the Vice Prime Minister, Fernando La Sama de Araújo, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Professional Training and Employment Policy, Ilídio Ximenes da Costa, the Secretary of State for the Support and Promotion of the Private Sector, Veneranda Lemos and the Secretary of State for Fisheries, Rafael Pereira Gonçalves, were at the Tibar Training Centre, for the opening ceremony of the training course in maritime industry, in which fifteen young people will participate.

The fifteen participants, fourteen of which are males and one female, will take this course for three months. Two months will be spent at the National Center for Professional Training and Employment in Tibar, and one month in Indonesia, where the course will be completed.

“We are committed to building two major works on the South Coast, in Cova Lima and Viqueque. Because of the mountainous nature of the terrain, there is great difficulty in handling containers in the territory through Ainaro, Aileu towards Dili. So we need a sea passage. If, in the future, the Nakroma is not the most appropriate means of transportation, we will have to have a ferry linking Dili to the South and North coasts, for carrying local products from those areas to Dili, without having to go through Cova Lima, Ainaro, Aileu or Ossu, Viqueque via Baucau, Manatuto, by only making the journey by sea, which is in the national interest, “said Fernando La Sama de Araújo.

“Today, you are graduates, and still need training, but in the future – in five or six years – you will become the teachers, and will be asserting our sovereignty, and we shall all participate and share responsibilities in that event. We need a hierarchy, but we all bear the individual burden to be responsible for our nation, ” the Vice Prime Minister appealed.

Ilídio Ximenes da Costa made reference to the great task SSPTEP is charged with, in the V Constitutional Government, which aims at promoting training centers, so as to influence the opinion of young people and incite them in making their choices for the future.

“From the SSPTEP perspective, despite this small number of young people who are today participating in this training, in the future there will be better promotion, cooperation will be further developed, and cooperation between ourselves shall be better organized, so as to provide the best learning means to our youth, and to empower them in the matters of the sea, ” Ilídio Ximenes da Costa suggested.

The support for this training was provided by the German Government through GTZ, and the boat Nakroma will be used for this purpose.