DILI, 12 april, 2022 (TATOLI)- Minister of Tourism Commerce and Industry (MTCI) promoted economic diversification for 23 local companies through the soft loan program.
The Vice-minister of MTCI, Domingos Lopes Antunes said the government through the Minister of Tourism Commerce and Industry (MTCI) is supporting local entrepreneurs with financial credit to diversify the country’s economy.
“There are 90 local companies enrolled to access the credits. There are 23 companies that were qualified and benefit from small credits,” The executive told TATOLI Agency, at his office, Fomento, this tuesday.
The 26 local companies are involved in different areas such as Agriculture, fishery, and hotel and foods industry.
He added that MTCI is focusing on small credit to help local companies face financial problems.
The 23 local companies are benefiting from 1.000 to 25.000 USD. The small credit offered is very useful and increases the company’s revenue. The 23 local companies have employed 174 staff to work on their companies.
The soft loan requires 3% for local companies to be paid back to the back.
“The companies have been complied with some criteria such as; the company must be profitable, the company should provide job opportunities and employ staff, It is required for an appropriate venue and others.
The 90 applicants are coming from different municipalities included in Atauru municipality.
To ensure the local companies should be sustainable on economic diversification. MTCI is cooperating with UNDP (United nation development program) and IADE (Institute to support business development, portuguese acronim).
The partners provide technical assistance in entrepreneur’s sections and also provide the training on cash flow and financial literacy.
The training provided will ensure the local companies gain some knowledge of financial management.
There are nine local companies’ credit still in process in the National Bank Commerce of Timor-Leste.
The financial soft loan is provided by the government of Timor-Leste through MTIC in the amount of 1 million USD in 2021.
The United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) also contributed 500.000 USD.
The amount available financial at BNCTL the amount of 1.380.330 USD million
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Rafy Belo
