DILI 15 june 2023 ( TATOLI) – The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MoFAC), Adaljiza Magno, said Timor – Leste had received the roadmap from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) from the ASEAN summit in Labuan Bajo in Indonesia’s Presidency on 09 to 11 may 2023.
Minister Magno highlighted in the content of the roadmap, there are a few requirements that Timor – Leste must be addressed, one of the most important is Timor – Leste must adjust the legislatures of three important pillars of ASEAN such as; the ASEAN Political-Security Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community ( ASCC).
“If Timor – Leste wishes to join as a full member of ASEAN quickly Timor – Leste should adjust the legislatures of three pillars of ASEAN namely APSC, AEC, and ASCC which become the strong fundamental of ASEAN,” Minister Magno told reporters in National Parliament, Dili.
Minister Magno, explained the other requirement that Timor – Leste must prioritize is to construct the quality of infrastructure such us to construct the hotels, port, airport, telecommunication, and other basic infrastructure that must be ensured in Timor – Leste.
” According to the plan Timor – Leste will become the Presidency of ASEAN in 2029, therefore recommended to the new Government to allocate around $500 million to construct the basic infrastructure such as; hotels, airport, port, roads, telecommunication, and the related basic infrastructure based on the existing of ASEAN roadmap, these infrastructures must be done because ASEAN has 11 members state namely Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Brune Darussalam, Laos, Myanmar including Timor – Leste + the partner countries such as; United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and China, therefore still 1 to 6 years that, we must prepare ourselves to construct the basic infrastructure especially to build the sufficient hotels because all of the head of state and head of the government of ASEAN and partners country will come to Timor – Leste, when Timor – Leste become the Presidency of ASEAN in 2029,” she said.
Another requirement of the roadmap that Timor – Leste should be addressed is Timor – Leste has the right to subsidize $ 4.1 million each year for use in the interest of ASEAN.
“Asked for new Government to consider and allocate the budget on the requirement of this roadmap for the interest of ASEAN together,” she added.
The most important criterion required by ASEAN is the quality of human resources because when Timor – Leste become a full member of ASEAN there will be a thousand meeting every year.
” Timor – Leste must prepare the human resources in all inter-ministerial and the vocal point in all ministries must dominate the English language to align a thousand meetings in each year in ASEAN. Therefore Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation had planned to recruit 2000 staff and this year we have recruited 400 staff hopefully the new government will recruit another 1600 staff from the related ministries by gradually handling 1000 meetings per year in ASEAN in the future,” she concluded.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Nelia B.
