DILI, 18 may 2023 (TATOLI) – Timor-Leste’s Minister of Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, inquire the new government to continue a plan for the requalify and commercialize Dili Port, in a Public-Private Partnership model (PPP) and developed with the support of the Tourism for All project, which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“The Port of Dili will be constructed under the ninth Constitutional Government since this process has been presented at the Council of Ministers to approve and to complete the agreements with USAID”, Finance Minister Rui Gomes told reporters at the Ministry of Finance, Aitarak- Laran, Dili.
Rui Gomes hoped that the ninth government will accelerate the Public-Private Partnership project.
Previously on September 8, 2021, the Government had analyzed the development plan for the reorientation and modernizing of the Port of Dili, because it underwent a change in the final drafting phase, making it necessary to submit it to a new deliberation.
The plan had already been discussed at the Executive meeting on the 28th of July.
The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidélis Magalhães, recalled that the Government adopted the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) financing modality, to be developed in accordance with the legal and regulatory framework to be implemented in Timor – Leste.
“The Council of Ministers analyzed and approved the resolution of the development plan for the restructuring and modernization of the Port of Dili. The plan foresees that, after the transfer of the cargo port functions to the new port of Tíbar, it will be converted into a marine and cruise port”, he said.
According to Magalhães, this project is a nationally significant project, given its location in a central and fundamental strategic area in the city of Dili, its function as a maritime connection to the populations of Oé-Cusse Ambeno and Ataúro, and its potential to be the driving force of the maritime tourism in Timor-Leste.
The United States reformulated, on March 28, 2023, the feasibility study for the transformation of the Port of Dili to convert the port into a tourist site.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Nelia B.
