DILI, 30 june 2021 (TATOLI) – National Institute of Sciences and Technology (INCT) considers the unemployment rate in the country mounted due to the impacts of the COVID-19 on economic activities in the country.
The President of the Executive Board of the National Institute of Sciences and Technology (INCT), José Cornélio Guterres informed that during the pandemic time, the economic activities of both public and private sectors declined, resulting in an increase in unemployment in the country.
To understand the impact of the COVID-19 on the economy, INCT together with other academicians, discussed today, at Fatuhada Tower with the theme “The implications of COVID-19 and lockdown on economic activities in Timor-Leste.”
“At the moment, there is no statistical data regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the rise of unemployment in the country. And we are going to discuss that today in this meeting. In fact, many people had complained about job loss, which is a problem for Timor-Leste to solve. INCT will put efforts to find out the unemployment rate caused by Covid-19 and lockdown,” said Cornelio.
At the same place, the Chief Staff of Prime Minister, Azevedo Lourenço da Costa Marçal said that many local companies’ economic activities had been halted during COVID-19, as a result, the unemployment rate in the country has increased because many people have lost their jobs.
He said the Basic Staple Food Program was one of the government programs to solve the difficult situation facing many Timorese people due to job loss during COVID-19 time.
Marçal emphasized that the “Cesta Básica” program provided jobs for the community members through 232 local companies that were contracted by the government to distribute the basic staple foods to communities across the country. “The program had created up to 100.080 temporary jobs in Timor-Leste during the distribution of the staple food to the communities.”
“Therefore, we must also recognize the positive impact of the Basic Staple Food Program. We need to continue the program as it has motivated many farmers and many people to become involved in increasing agricultural production, particularly the production of locally grown food in the country,” said Marçal.
He said many local companies would close down or halt their economic activities if the government stopped the Basic Staple Food Program: “If these local companies would not be contracted by the government for the distribution of the staple food, then the unemployment rate would rise. Thus, I think we need to make the Basic Staple Food Program a permanent program to encourage our farmers to continue growing our local food, which would help to reduce the unemployment in the country.”
However, according to the laboral research done in 2013, more than 1.2 million of Timorese people, over 11%, was unemployed.
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Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
