DILI, 10 june 2022 (TATOLI) – Timorese Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak said Timor-Leste’s Major Planning Options Law, which was approved by the National Parliament last week should be complemented through the establishment and planning of the great partnerships.
Ruak said the great partnership of government and development partners was important for the implementation of the Major Planning Options Law, in which the Government continues to seek to provide better standards of living, to ensure that all citizens, men or women, disabled or vulnerable groups, have equal opportunities in access to education, training, and employment, to be able to obtain the necessary resources and income to ensure a sustainable dignity.
“I invited the Honourable Members of Parliament, in a speech made in the National Parliament on june 2nd, 2022, to unite their efforts with the Government in the search for and creation of New Value Chains, capable of mobilizing and grouping all the efforts and partnerships established to achieve Food Security and strengthen national production,” said Ruak.
He said the value chains for the key sectors of Timor-Leste’s potential and productive economy, including agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism, industry, and services, improving existing partnerships and seeking new multi-sectoral cooperation initiatives, local and national, public and private, internal and external, in favor of merit, excellence, quality, and added value.
“Great partnerships help us to enhance the national supply, through the training of producers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, authorities, and associative and cooperative leaders, and may also contribute to the promotion and marketing of local products, with a smaller ecological footprint and more environmentally friendly,” he stressed.
Ruak said there are Major Partnerships in favor of different value chains, namely: Health, Education, Territorial Development and Housing, Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock, Tourism, Industry, Defence and Civil Aviation, and Culture.
“In Health, we want to enhance the reference chain, so that health can be brought closer to the citizens, through family health programs, fixed or mobile clinics, health centers, and referral hospitals, taking advantage of the capacities in place and the investments we will be making in the construction of the New National Hospital Guido Valadares and the new Lahane Hospital, currently being analyzed.
He said concerning the Education value chain: “We seek to establish with the construction of the Centre of Excellence for Manpower Qualification in Metinaro or the investment in technical-vocational and polytechnic higher education, which seeks to respond not only to the growing flow of Timorese workers abroad but also to the growing internal needs of a developing country.”
“Regarding the Territorial Development and Housing, it is value chains that could follow the example of the Public-Private Partnership in Housing, currently under study for the construction of 2,000 (two thousand) homes in Hera Village, with the financial support of the World Bank International Finance Corporation. A value chain that seeks to make social housing available for people affected by natural disasters or living in areas at risk of calamity,” he said.
Ruak added inAgriculture, Fisheries, and Livestock,new legislation has recently come into force with support mechanisms to increase agricultural production (for example in coffee or Coastal Mangroves – Ai Parapa) or which make it mandatory to contract at least 75% of local products in the State’s procurement processes, especially in public bodies with large catering consumption, such as school meals, hospital meals or those of the defense, civil protection and security services, among others.”
Meanwhile, regarding the tourismvalue chain, it would be the focus advantage of major public investments, such as the future rehabilitation of the Port of Dili, adapting it into a modern passenger terminal for cruise ships, and equipping it with a modern marina to accommodate the recreational and leisure boats that visit us, which will certainly encourage the appearance of new businesses in the transport sector and maritime or underwater tourism.
“In the Industry sector, the Government has the ambition to build, in every Municipality in the country, an Industrial Park, duly equipped with all the basic services needed to start new economic activities, namely access to electricity, water and sanitation, communications, waste treatment stations, and adequate road access or safety conditions.”
He stressed that in Defence and Civil Aviation: “Following the example of the cooperation partnership established in Defence with the Government of the United States of America for the rehabilitation of Baucau Airport, supporting, on one hand, the national objective of establishing and enabling an air component for the FALINTIL – Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), and on the other hand, placing the rehabilitated infrastructure at the disposal of a value chain in the civil aviation sector, in a broader program that will make Baucau International Airport available for the civil movement of passengers and goods, both domestically and internationally, contributing to the development of Baucau’s development hub, through new connectivity for the various sectors of the local and regional economy.
In addition, Ruak said the culture value chain will take advantage of the recent recognition by UNESCO of the Timorese Tais as an intangible heritage of Humanity, to encourage the appearance of new partnerships in the value-added chain of the handicraft sector and the micro, small, and medium local industries of traditional Timorese products, in basketry, pottery, artistic expressions, jewelry and bijouterie, wood carving and the use of other certified traditional materials, placing culture at the service of Tourism and the people, as a complementary offer to the local economy that adds value to Timor-Leste as a destination.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
