RP to send agri experts to East Timor

The Philippines has assured East Timor of its full support in rehabilitating and developing the farming and fishery sector of the war-ravaged former Indonesian territory, offering an initial batch of its agriculture experts to do the job.

The assurance was conveyed by Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara to East Timor independence leaders Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta during their official visit to the agriculture department yesterday.

"We will be very happy to extend technical assistance to East Timor as much as we can," Angara told his two guests, both of whom are widely acknowledged to become president and vice president when their country officially becomes an independent state.

Angara officially presented his visitors the 11 experts, nominated by the country in response to the United Nations Transition Authority for East Timor's call on the Philippines to send its experts to the territory. UNTAET is the temporary governing body overseeing the territory's affairs until it finally becomes independent.

The list includes Philippine Rice Research Institute rice expert Genaro San Valentin, aquaculture expert Arnold Velarde, fiber expert Gilberto Layese, animal production expert Samuel Castorillo, irrigation expert Bonifacio Labiano, rural development expert Jimmy Olivo, plant quarantine expert Diogenes Lopez, project management expert Estrella Tulay, coconut expert Bonifacio Pangahas, and agribusiness experts Ursulina Nonoy and Joselito Aquino.

During the hour-long meeting, Ramos-Horta disclosed that the most pressing need for East Timor was for it to lessen, if not eliminate, humanitarian food aid by March 2001.

The battered territory, devastated by Indonesian-backed militias in September 1999 after an overwhelming vote for independence from Jakarta's rule, continue to depend on international food assistance to feed its people.

For his part, Gusmao said there is a need to establish a training scheme by which experts and volunteers could provide various technical assistance to East Timor, funding of which may likely be provided by the Asian Bank and the World Bank.

ADB and the WB are managing a $140 million trust fund meant to rehabilitate East Timor's infrastructure needs and to give attention to agriculture, health and educational development, Gusmao added.

At least 70 percent of East Timor's about 800,000 inhabitants depend on agriculture for their subsistence and 60 percent of this proportion are engaged in rice cultivation.