ASEAN offers training to improve capacity building for Timor-Leste. (Photo: asean.org)

The CBP aimed to ramp up Timor-Leste’s readiness to the economic agreements and instruments under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) pillar. Under the programme, ASEC staff from the AEC Department were dispatched to Timor-Leste.

As the first of the series, the training under Cluster I was geared towards building knowledge and facilitating greater understanding of AEC’s work, its processes, and mechanisms as well as the Initiative for ASEAN Integration and Narrowing the Development Gap (IAI&NDG).

In addition, a session with the private sector was held to exchange views on their role in the accession process to enable them to effectively participate and benefit from the economic agreements. The programme provided immersive and engaging learning experiences for the participants through interactive discussions on the relevant aspects of the ASEAN economic integration agenda. 

In his opening remarks, Satvinder Singh, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community, reassured Timor-Leste on ASEC’s commitment to support their capacity development in the preparation and accession of their full membership to the regional organisation and in the implementation of the various ASEAN economic agreements.

He further acknowledged CBP as an important platform to boost capacity and help expedite Timor-Leste’s accession process. He called upon the officials to take this opportunity to benefit from and tap on the available technical resource during the training. The three-day training was participated in by 63 officials from various ministries and agencies of Timor-Leste./.