THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Capacity Building for East Timor in ASEAN/AFTA

9,200,000 yen (Grant project)
Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER, Malaysia)

East Timor has a population of 790,000 and its economy depends on petroleum and agriculture products, including coffee and domestic livestock. From the viewpoints of security and economic development, joining ASEAN and AFTA is one of the most important goals for East Timor to achieve to plan for the long term development of the economy. However, the country lacks experts who know macro economics and international economics, and fostering economics experts is one of the most essential tasks. The project aims to provide East Timor’s economic policy planners with economic theories and knowledge to join AFTA and the international economy through workshops and short course lectures. The project also tries to help them understand the current situation of ASEAN countries.

Activities of the last year of the project will be as follows.

Preparatory meeting (April, 2006)
MIER will visit East Timor and discuss training plans with relevant people from East Timor’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
Short course lectures (May to October, 2006 in Kuala Lumpur)
Three policy planners will be selected from past participants in the project and attend short course lectures at MIER. They will study strategies for ASEAN participation and economic development, and compile reports.
International conference (Two days in Dili)
An international conference on strategies for ASEAN participation and economic development will be held with six invited economics experts from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brunei. About 40 East Timor policy planners and researchers will participate in the international conference.
Compilation of reports (February, 2007)

(Final year of a 3-year project)