Importance of the 2016 Infrastructure Fund Programs

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4.2. Summary of the 2016 IF Budget by Program

Similar to the previous year, the 2016 IF budget will be used to finance the following 24 programs, with the source of funds coming from the State budget, external borrowing, and private partnership through the PPP modality. The detail of each program, including the proposed projects and funding modality will be described in detail as follows.

4.2.1 Agriculture Program

Agriculture is a strategic sector for future economic development because the majority of the households in the country depend on the Agriculture sector for making a living. Infrastructure development in agriculture is only one factor that will help increase food production and availability, improved distribution and increased food security through enhancing availability and indirectly by increasing income. Other factors such as better farming practice, mechanization, proper sheding, application of proper fertilizers are among the various factors that will contribute to the increasing the food production. Three major irrigation projects – Raibere, Oebaba and Caraulun listed in Budget Book 6 in 2013, 2014, and 2015 have been completed. The completed irrigation system covers a total of 3,000 hectares. Currently, the systems are in operation and within their defect liability period. For 2016, a total of 2.0 million has been allocated to cover the retention payment as well as for the completion of the existing contract on the Larisula irrigation project.

4.2.2 Water and Sanitation Program

Access to safe potable water and hygienic sanitation facilities is essential for healthy living. Improvements in sanitation and water supply facilities are necessary throughout the country to provide safe water and better sanitation facilities. This will reduce illness and raise the quality of life. Since its establishment, the IF has financed several projects under the water and sanitation program of the Dili urban area, which include the drainage rehabilitation, rehabilitation of water supply distribution, and masterplan development of the Dili drainage and sanitation system. In years 2013-2014, the budget also allocated for concept and preparation of the water supply system operation and maintenance in both the Dili urban area and other districts through the modality of public private partnership. With the IF fund, the master plan for Dili drainage and sanitation improvement schemes was completed in 2012. The Detail Engineering Design DED for some of the strategic options to improve sanitation and drainage system in Dili as recommended in the master plan has been completed in 2014-2015. The construction of a major urban drainage system and river training works to alleviate the frequency of urban flooding in Dili will be conducted in 2016 and 2017 and be financed via an external loan from the EXIM Bank of China. For the 2016 Budget, the total budget allocation was amounted to 10.2 million that is mainly for the co-financing of the Dili drainage project under the EXIM Bank loan and a small amount 15 that will cover the expected retention and existing projects such as the feasibility study of PPP options for the Dili water supply operation and maintenance. However, the budget was revised to 13 million as the National Parliament approved to move 2 million from MoPWTC budget for study for construction of DAM for water retention.

4.2.3 Urban and Rural Development Program

This program aims to ensure good planning for space and economic activities based on maximizing regional and local resource potential and comparative advantage to prevent inefficient resource utilization. In order to produce a comprehensive spatial planning for both rural and urban areas, the basic spatial information in the format of Geographical Information System GIS would be required. With this pre-condition in mind, the Government has completed the geospatial data collection for the entire Timor Leste territory by using the methodology of Light Detection and Ranging LiDAR. The products of the LiDAR is composed of very detailed topographic data and high resolution aerial imagery which are the basic data needed to develop urban and regional planning such as land use zoning, future transportation planning, and other regional economic development plans. For the fiscal year of 2016, the total allocated budget for the urban and rural development program amounts to 12. 2 million where 0.182 million is reserved to cover the retention payment for existing government contracts on national urban planning and 12 million is allocated for the second phase of LiDAR data collection project to collect the information below the ground for the entire Timor Leste territory which at this stage is under tender preparation.

4.2.4 Public Building

Program Most of the existing government offices and public buildings were constructed during the Indonesian administration and a few were constructed during the Portuguese administration. Many of these buildings were either damaged prior to the restoration of independence or do not meet the need of the Government employees to work effective and efficiently in providing the services to its people. Therefore, the Public Office Building Program has the objective of supporting the provision of cost-effective services to the public. From an initial 11 public building projects in the IF in 2011, the number of on-going projects increased annually to 25 in 2014 with another nine listed for funding as from 2015. In addition, proposals for a further 11 projects for commencement in 2015 were submitted. Of these projects that have been funded through the IF, a few of them are at the completion stages such as new Ministry of Finance building, National Electoral Commission CNE, the Referral Hospital Baucau, Ministry of Justice new building and others are progressing. There are 32 projects listed in the 2015 Infrastructure Fund budget with an initial approved budget of 13.7 million originally for their respected programs in December 2014. This figure was later reduced to 8.5 million, as 5.0 million was taken out from various projects within the public building program during the budget rectification in March 2015. The achievement made during the 2015 fiscal year has focused on the completion of several public building projects