DILI, 12 april 2022 (TATOLI) – The Directorate of ASEAN Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia met with the Port Authority of Timor-Leste (APORTIL) to talk about all preparation that APORTIL has been made so far in order to contribute to the acceleration of Timor-Leste accession to ASEAN.
The President of APORTIL, Lamartinho de Oliveira said that during the meeting, the Indonesian team expressed their commitment to continue supporting APORTIL in capacity building and training to better prepare APORTIL for the future.
“They want to know our preparation process in contributing to the acceleration process of Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN. We also informed them about Tibar Port. This is the new port where we will be moving our office there,” Oliveira told reporters after the meeting at the office of APORTIL, in Dili, today.
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He said the current Dili Port would be transformed into a tourist city port, saying the tourism industry is going to be the nation’s economic development tool that will benefit the Timorese people in the future.
At the same place, the Director of the Economic ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Berlianto Situngkir said that the purpose of the visit of the delegation was to support Timor-Leste’s preparation for its ASEAN membership.
“We want to know the capacity of Timor-Leste’s port (Tibar Port) which will become the passenger port in the future. In addition, with this visit, we also want to know what type of passenger ferries would operate to this port,” Situngkir said.
He stressed that Timor-Leste will be involved in the bilateral tourism cooperation with other ASEAN member states: “Therefore, in the future, the passenger ferries from other countries would have their operation to this port. So, basically, we want to know the capacity of the Tibar Port, as well as its services and operation regulations, customs clearance, immigration, and its security.”
In addition, the legal advisor of APORTIL, Rui Miguel Carreira informed that Tibar Port is a private concession granted by the government and rented by APORTIL.
“Therefore, they will be privately operated, but we still regulate the port infrastructure in the country. We still develop other port infrastructure in the country called the Dili Port and include other investments in the area, such as (…) specialized ports, etc,” he said.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
