Last March 31st, the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Luís Guterres, travelled to Brussels, in order to sign an Agreement with the European Union.

The Minister José Luís Guterres, acting as National Authorization Manager for the European Union Fund, along with the Ambassador for Timor-Leste in Belgium, Nelson dos Santos, and by the Ordering and Assistant Deputy for Timor-Leste, Madalena Hanjan Soares, signed a Financial Agreement of the European Development Fund for the area of Pubic Finance Management, worth USD$5.560.000.000.

According to José Luís Guterres, the Agreement aims “the improvement of the policy and tax collection, in order not to rely only on oil and gaz revenues. The financial support will be allocated to the Ministry of Finance as well as the other institutions”.

The signature of this Agreement follows other Agreements signed with the European Union, particularly on the District Roads Rehabilitation and Maintenance Program (worth USD$20.000.000), on the Integrated Nutrition Project (worth USD$14.000.000) and on the Financial Agreement of the World Climate Change Alliance (worth USD$5.600.000.000).

“The European Union is committed to keep on providing every support to the sustainable development of our economy”, concluded the Minister José Luís Guterres.