TIMORESE DIPLOMATS START WORKING

Today marks the first working day for 15 East Timorese diplomats employed by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the East Timor Transitional Administration. The diplomats, who will be working with administration, protocol, policy and media relations, come from the batch of 50 East Timorese who graduated from the Diplomatic Training Course in Dili in August last year. Since then, the group has participated in numerous training activities, including on-the-job training in foreign missions abroad, and workshops and classes at the Civil Service Academy in Dili. A total of 20 diplomats have been selected to work in the Department of Foreign Affairs so far. The remaining five will join the Department within two weeks.

MEMO SIGNED TO ESTABLISH PETROLEUM TRAINING PROGRAM

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by the Australian and East Timor Governments and the petroleum and gas industry to develop programs designed to enable East Timorese to compete for employment in the oil and gas industry. The document calls for the members of the so-called Steering Committee for the Petroleum Related Education, Training and Employment for East Timorese to establish a training program on oil and gas industry issues for East Timorese this year with a view to formal implementation in 2002. The Steering Committee has appointed Terry Hudson of the Australian Oil and Gas Industry Training Consortium as Program Manager to develop a training framework and make recommendations to the Committee on program implementation. Hudson will visit East Timor in early June. It is expected that initially about 200 East Timorese will benefit from the training programme, worth A$300,000 (roughly US$150,000.) The Steering Committee comprises of UNTAET, East Timor Transitional Administration, the Australian Government, the Northern Territory Government, Phillips Petroleum Company, Woodside Energy Limited and the Timor Gap Joint Authority. There are currently two East Timorese engineers working on oilrigs in the Timor Gap and one East Timorese geologist working in Darwin, Australia, for the Joint Authority.