Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be here to address the 31st Session of IFAD on its’ 30th anniversary. I should also like to convey the best wishes of the Government and the People of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

President of IFAD, Mr Lennart Bage, please allow me to express my sincere congratulations on the 30th anniversary of the Fund. On behalf of the President, the Prime Minister and people of Timor-Leste, I would like to congratulate IFAD for your outstanding achievements over the past 30 years.

I am here today representing a small country located at the crossroads of South East Asia and the Pacific.

It is a mountainous country that occupies about half of the island of Timor.

The population is around 1,000 000.

The economy is based on subsistence agriculture with the main crops being rice, maize and coffee. 90% of the population lives in rural areas.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As people and a nation, we have had to face and overcome many challenges: our struggle for independence culminated in the near total destruction of our land, its’ infrastructures and disruption of our way of life in particular to our agricultural population.

In May 2002 we began our journey as an independent nation. To rebuild a nation with a large percentage of the population traumatized and a very limited infrastructure with basic institutions of governance, which had to be established, was and still is a tall order.

The political and military crisis of 2006, again created disruptions and many setbacks for us as a nation.

However, we Timorese have sometimes be referred to as tenacious people. Today we have a new government lead by PM Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao. This government (AMP) has its five year plan.

To enhance food security in the country, the government plans to re-use all the sleeping lands in Timor-Leste and has introduced various technologies of rice development amongst other biodiversities.

Agriculture is the prime activity in Timor-Leste and it will not change in the near future. It is crucial to develop agriculture as a thriving sector, both to provide food security and to maximize potential for commercial development.

Our policy is to encourage the different partners and agencies working in agriculture development, to provide efficient and effective services which complement and reinforce each other. We support farmers by providing agricultural input and equipment and technical assistance. Furthermore, the government provides more agricultural machinery to enhance the utilization of the land. It is important now to assist farmers in the best methods of use for their systems and to make them responsible for the maintenance of these systems while the remainder is being repaired.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Timor-Leste is the poorest country  in Southeast Asia and one of the ten poorest countries in the world. The challenge now for Timor-Leste is the challenge that we believe will be shared with all the nations that are represented today in this Plenary. We count with your support and we look forward to your visit to Timor-Leste.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my people. I hope this is not one of, but the first step towards a long and fruitful relationship between our country and IFAD.

Thank you.