Campaign Update

When you receive this newsletter, I am sure that many of you will be thinking that it has been a bit quiet recently from CET, and you would be right. I regret it has taken so long to prepare this newsletter but the reality is that, for the first time in a very long time, there is no substantial progress to report.

I can advise however, that the four installed village radio networks, as a whole, continue to operate satisfactorily although there have been some breakdowns at a few sites and these are being attended to.

This month marks the first anniversary of the decision by the Government of Timor-Leste to include provision for the next stages of CET (since renamed Project Telesuco) into the budget for 2008. The reality is that as of today, the project remains stalled in the bureaucracy. This is despite the best, and much appreciated, efforts of two special people, both great friends of the Campaign who were working in the responsible line ministries but who have now returned to Australia. I refer to Pedro Braga and David Fay and thank them sincerely for their efforts on behalf of CET during 2008, noting that they each had many other responsibilities.

I have been racking my brains for some time as to what can be done about the inertia we are experiencing. The challenge is to come up with something that we haven’t already done to try and move the CET vision forward. I am still thinking and would welcome any suggestions from you.

One thing that we must try and encourage is for the Government of Timor-Leste to make another provision for CET/Project Telesuco in its budget for 2009. In this context you might like to read the letter to the Minister for Finance below as it also provides a summary of where the Campaign is at.

I thought we had ‘passed the baton’ with inclusion of CET in the budget for 2008 a year ago this month and also with the strong level of support from President José Ramos-Horta earlier this year. Sadly, it is now clear that I was wrong.

I intend to provide another update before Christmas, but till then please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thank you for again for your support of CET in the past and for your patience over the past few months.

Peter de Haas

Letter to Minister for Finance

14 November 2008

Emilia Pires
Minister for Finance
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
DILI

Dear Minister,

Further to our letter dated 18 February 2008, the purpose of this letter is to respectfully request your assistance in ensuring that budget provision is made for Connect East Timor (CET) /Project Telesuco in the 2009 budget year.

As you would be aware, while funds were apparently allocated for this project in the 2008 budget, not one dollar has actually been expended to date. For the many generous donors in Australia, some of whom have supported CET since 2001, this is a very disappointing outcome, particularly with the good momentum that was achieved in 2007 with the roll-out of the Pilot Project in Dili District and in the Lacluta and Balibo sub-Districts.

The leading donors and supporters of the Campaign (together contributing well over AUD400,000 in cash and in kind towards the successful CET Demonstration and Pilot Projects) have been the Queensland Government and ACT Government. Many other organisations and individuals have also contributed their time, money and skills.

We understand that the lack of progress of Project Telesuco was the subject of an inquiry from the President’s office some months ago and that you also wrote to your colleague, the Minister for Infrastructure, during the year to try and move the project forward. This is greatly appreciated.

Although we have received no official advice either by email or letter, from anyone in the Government of Timor-Leste about the reasons why Project Telesuco has not progressed in 2008, many unofficial reasons (rumours?) have been communicated to us in the past months. These include:

? Project Telesuco challenges the Timor-Telecom monopoly

? Project Telesuco is unnecessary because the Government’s telecommunications reform program will fix the problem of rural communications

? The Chefes de Suco have been ‘misbehaving’ and shouldn’t be rewarded with a communications system

? CET being an Australian NGO, is the ‘wrong nationality’

? The Government’s priority for Project Telesuco in the 2008 budget was unclear, given that there was only a consolidated line item for ‘Communications’ covering several projects. Actual allocations to individual projects then apparently became an issue for debate and disagreement by officials within the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Whatever the real reason for the delay, we do now know. It is clear, however, that there has been no progress in providing the 300,000 or so people living in rural and remote areas of Timor-Leste with access to communications services that they (and the Government) can afford. We have consistently argued, through David Fay and Rodney Lewis, throughout the year that introducing telecommunications competition alone will not result in significant new telecommunications infrastructure and services being deployed in rural areas. There is ample evidence for this in the experience of other countries, including Australia.

Someone has to pay for such infrastructure and services. Timor Telecom hasn’t done so to date because it is not commercially viable. In the current world economic climate, it would appear that donor countries would be far less likely to consider proposals to fund telecommunications infrastructure than they have been since 1999. Given the Government’s previous decision to include CET/Project Telesuco in its 2008 budget provisions, CET has also ceased fundraising for rural communications.

Considering these circumstances, and within an indicative budget estimate of USD5-6M over five years to deploy a basic communications infrastructure to all sub-Districts and to 489 sucos, we respectfully request (on behalf of the people who are living in rural and remote areas of Timor-Leste) that a specific budget line allocation be approved for Project Telesuco in 2009 for an amount of USD500,000.

If agreed by the Government, this amount would fund an independent consultancy (competitively selected through a tendering process) to provide considered advice on the available policy and technology options for quickly improving rural communications services. Any such consultancy should be required to include consideration of:

? the telecommunications reform program,

? a range of possible technology options for rural communications, including but not limited to the two-way radio technology used by CET, and,

? the requirements for government and community communications in rural and remote areas.

The key objective of the consultancy would ideally be to identify the optimum communications services option that produces the best outcomes for the Government and rural people of Timor-Leste in terms of capability, time to implement and costs. This option would be in the shape of a preferred system design supported by a firm estimate of costs so that Government is able to be confident in making any future budget provision.

For such a consultancy, 3-4 months should be allowed and, if managed properly, it could produce an outcome in time for Government consideration in the context of the 2010 budget round. An allocation of USD300,000 would suffice to pay for the consultancy work and the remaining USD200,000 would fund a communications project manager within the responsible Ministry (with some provision also for specialist contractor support). This internal role would be very important given that there a number of Ministries who are stakeholders in a rural communications system down to suco level. Their needs and priorities would need to be taken into account to avoid the Government being faced with multiple proposals for separate, overlapping networks in rural areas, one for each Ministry.

Given the lack of progress and priority for Project Telesuco within the Ministry of Infrastructure, and given also the fact that this Ministry would never be a significant user of any rural communications system (compared to, say, the Ministries of Internal Administration, Health, Education, and Agriculture), it might be prudent to designate one of these Ministries as the Lead Agency for Project Telesuco in the Government. Clearly, it is important to appoint a person in the selected Ministry as the accountable officer to progress Project Telesuco and provide him/her with the needed resources.

CET has no capacity or commercial interests in undertaking such a consultancy (or for any future implementation project) but might be prepared to provide further reasonable pro-bono assistance to the government to help with engaging a suitable consultant. We have already provided the Government with a number of reports, presentations, a cost model and consultancy tender documents: all pro-bono. However, we would be much more confident in the value of providing further assistance if there is a specific budget line allocation for Project Telesuco in the 2009 budget, if the responsible Lead Agency is clearly identified and, if an accountable person is appointed and given the authority and responsibility to get results.

For your information, CET is planning to support the installed radio systems in Atabae, Balibo, and Lacluta sub-Districts only until the end of 2009. These systems were intended to be ‘demonstration and pilot’ systems, to show the impact of providing rural communities with basic, affordable communications. In our assessment, the results could not have been clearer and have already been communicated to the Government.

Finally, it is very important that the CET Campaign keeps faith with our donors and supporters by keeping them informed of matters affecting the vision they have so generously supported for so long. For this reason, this letter will be included in the next CET newsletter and also posted on the CET website. Copies will also be sent to the Premier of Queensland and the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, as well as to various government officials in Australia and in Timor-Leste who have an interest in CET/Project Telesuco. We would be very pleased to receive a formal reply in due course from you so that this can also be communicated to these various stakeholders given their commitment to Timor-Leste through the CET Campaign.

Thank you very much for your attention to this rather long letter. If you need any further information or clarification of any matter, please don’t hesitate to contact the undersigned.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by:

Peter de Haas

Chairman

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