The Timorese Government, through the Ministry of Education, received a Graphic Arts and Printing Centre from the Government of South Korea, represented by Korea’s International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The delivery ceremony took place last Tuesday, July 23rd, at the Centre’s headquarters, in Comoro.
The Minister of Education, Bendito dos Santos Freitas, thanked KOICA and the Government of South Korea, for the creation of the Graphic Arts and Printing Centre, thus supporting the Timorese Government and particularly the Ministry of Education.
“This support represents a great impact on Government and State services. The basis for change and social transformation is located in Education. When there are no books available for students, there is no quality in human resources’ training”, highlighted Bendito dos Santos Freitas.
The Minister of Education also referred that this printing Centre has already printed, amongst others, the Manual for School Meals, the History Book on D. Boaventura and that, in the future, it will be used to print documents that will assure the teaching process of the first, second and third stage of Basic Education, as well as the secondary education.
The Ministry of Education sets out technician training as a priority, to ensure the proper operation of services and maintenance of machinery, also reaffirming the fact the directors and teams are the ones to ensure the maintenance, control and care of the infrastructures.
The Ambassador of South Korea reaffirmed his country’s commitment in continuing bilateral cooperation, in machine routine maintenance to ensure their proper functioning and the ability to print books, in large quantities and of excellent quality for the students of this country.
Until now, KOICA assured the payment for the service of 20 workers from the Graphic Arts and Printing Centre but from now on, it will be the Ministry of Education taking responsibility for those costs.