Source: CCTV.com

01-14-2007 18:16

The world's second youngest nation, East Timor, is struggling to develop. This tiny island country is short of resources, capital and a skilled workforce. In 2006, East Timor and the International Labor Organization started a project called "STAGE", meaning "Skills Training for Gainful Employment".

In today's Working Asia Series, Producer Antonio Dias from Radio and Television Timor-Leste brings us the story.

Tomorrow, we have a report from "News Singapore" to learn how that island nation has transformed its economy.

As a new nation recently born out of conflict East Timor is now facing many urgent problems that need to be resolved. Of these issues unemployment is a main priority to be solved quickly, left unresolved these problems could create social disorder.

East Timor is one of the poorest countries in South East Asia and according to the United Nations Human Development Report in 2002 unemployment was as high as 65 percent. Interestingly around sixty percent of it's population are under 18 years of age, the productive age in the working sector.

An important factor about unemployment is the lack of capacity and skills of the local labor force and its inability to meet the demands of the market.

Jose Maria, director of employment, said "Yes we recognize since Indonesian time till now exist a gap of quality between our workers and foreigner workers like China, Indonesia and others region. Our worker quality still under standard. We must recognize that."

As an example today in East Timor there are many small private enterprises who start by borrow money from the bank. There is a lack of capacity to understand the market; there is no market survey or business analysis. People start to operate a transportation business without analyzing the business opportunities. So now the market flooded with so many similar business that compete with each other. This situation worries the businesses because there is no chance to make money. They become bankrupt and have to sell the car.

Domingos Ribeiro said "The reality in Dili now is that there are so many similar businesses, like transportation. And it's hard to make money. On other side the fuel also expensive. That’s why I decided to sale the car so I can pay back the bank."

Reacting to the problem the Ministry of Labor in cooperation with the International Labor Organization has established a project called STAGE - meaning Skills Training for Gainful Employment. This project consists of three important components, vocational training, management and financial support. To guaranty the sustainability, the project has established a market survey is in the district, to identify the expectations of the community. The needs of local production and small businesses are identified, in order to answer the market needs of the local community. Employment Centers in four districts has also been established. They act as a communication network between the employer and the employee, and provides service to identify training needs.

Jose Assalino Ilo, chief technical advisor, said "So far credit is already available but it doesn't provide managerial skills. What STAGE brings new is exactly the capacity to the person to not get credit before get any relevant training for the business. That’s why the market assessment is very important in this project."

Some initiatives have began to benefit the local community - Trough promotes their local production and assist in creating self-employment, which will contribute to economic growth.

Activities of people working The initiatives are growing but an important point is how to create the mechanisms needed to develop a market for local production The government with the International Labor Organization, and including other partners have laid down the foundations to assist the community to create and develop self-employment in order to reduce unemployment. There now needs to be active participation from the community. The program has started and time is still needed to see the effectiveness and the results.

 

Editor:Du Xiaodan