Timor-Leste, Portugal sign two-year infrastructure cooperation deal
DILI, 20 August 2026 (TATOLI) – The Ministry of Planning and Strategic Investment (MPIE) and IP Engenharia, part of Portugal’s Infraestruturas de Portugal group, have signed a two-year cooperation protocol to strengthen the country’s institutional capacity in the infrastructure sector.
The agreement was signed on August 18 in the Union of Parishes of Almada, Portugal, by Timor-Leste’s Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment Gastão de Sousa and IP Engenharia board member Maria Amália. Portugal’s Secretary of State for Mobility, Cristina Pinto, attended the ceremony.
Gastão said the partnership marked a new phase in Timor-Leste’s approach to infrastructure development, with greater emphasis on planning, management and the long-term sustainability of public investments rather than construction alone.
“The challenge now is to consolidate investments, plan them better, select the right locations for investment and ensure that what we have already built is properly managed and maintained,” he said.
He said Timor-Leste also needed to apply stronger economic and technical criteria when determining investment priorities and diversify funding sources for infrastructure projects to reduce reliance on the state budget.
The cooperation will also include legal support, particularly efforts to strengthen the legal framework governing the road sector. Gastão said this would provide greater legal certainty and enhance the country’s institutional capacity to implement and enforce relevant legislation.
Unlike programmes focused mainly on preparing studies, legislation or technical methodologies, the protocol places a stronger emphasis on institutional capacity-building through training programmes in both Timor-Leste and Portugal.
The initiative is expected to strengthen the technical skills of Timor-Leste’s infrastructure professionals and better prepare them to respond to the sector’s long-term challenges.
Gastão said the partnership with IP Engenharia was built on the experience and expertise accumulated by both sides in infrastructure development.
He said the cooperation was particularly important as Timor-Leste continued to consolidate its role as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where stronger institutions and sustainable infrastructure are important to the country’s development.
TATOLI
