DILI, 29 june 2023 (TATOLI)-Deputy Minister of Trade and Tourism Industry (MTCI), Domingos Antunes, said the MTCI has authorized four initiatives to help microentrepreneurs in developing their businesses.
Domingos Antunes Lopes said the measures were approved by the Council of Ministers to support micro-entrepreneurs during COVID-19 and natural calamities.
“We have approved a government policy to support entrepreneurs in developing their business activities; the steps are the Soft Loan Program, the Business Innovative Competition Program, the Moratorium Loan Program, and the Food Basket Program. This step was to ensure sustainable business activities,” Antunes told Tatoli Media at his office on wednesday in Mandarin.
Lopes said In the implementation of these programs, MTCI is working closely with the relevant institution, IADE, to provide entrepreneurs with business capacity building to ensure the business is sustainable.
“MTCI recognized many challenges to controlling and supporting small businesses in our country. So far, over 80.000 entrepreneurs have registered in the SERVE data-based system and gained the license certification to run small and medium businesses; therefore, the government of Timor Leste has provided 2 million USD to support the moratorium loan program, and this program helps so much the business people during crucial situations such as COVID-19 and calamity situations.”
It is known that MTCI provided Decree Law No. 30/2023 to support microbusiness, which was just approved by the President of the Republic, José Ramos Horta, two weeks ago.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
