The Lagoa City Council is developing a Cooperation Protocol with the Republic of Timor-Leste, with the sponsorship of the Secretary of State for Administrative Decentralization, to collaborate in the constitution of the Municipality of Lautém, in that country of Oceania.
Within the scope of the Cooperation Protocols, for each Municipality to be created in Timor-Leste there will be two associated Portuguese Municipalities, with the aim of helping to undertake programs aimed at development, promoting economic, cultural, social and educational exchanges, mobilizing the most diverse incentives, based on the interests and options of each of the territories involved and according to the existing possibilities at each moment.
This Cooperation Protocol is part of the Agreement between Portuguese and Timorese Municipalities, signed on 21 March 2013, and will be developed jointly between the Municipalities of Lagoa and Grândola, on the Portuguese side, and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, with the objective of supporting the process of institution, functionality and democratization of Local Power in Lautém.
The proposed lines of action will focus on Technical Training, through technical training for employees of the future Timorese municipality of Lautém, as well as on the use and mastery of the Portuguese language, with the raising of Books for the installation of a municipal library in that territory.
Promotion and economic interaction actions will also be developed, and it is foreseen that efforts and steps will be taken with the local business community in order to carry out visits to that territory with a view to new business and investment opportunities.
To move the project forward, two bilateral meetings have already been held, on July 21 and November 21, 2014, between the municipalities of Lagoa and Grândola, with the aim of outlining a joint cooperation plan, which may be followed by twinning.
In the administrative division of that former Portuguese territory – which became fully independent on May 20, 2002, after having gone through a complex process of self-determination – Lautém is one of the 13 districts of Timor-Leste. As many Timorese towns had Portuguese names, Lautém was called Vila Nova de Malaca. The official languages of this municipality are Tetum and Portuguese.
East Timor, which is now a sovereign State, was Portuguese territory between 1561 and November 28, 1975, having been a member of the United Nations and CPLP for several years.
Campaign raises books for East Timor
The Municipality of Lagoa is currently carrying out a campaign to raise books in Portuguese in the entire community of the municipality and the Algarve region, with a view to setting up a library in the Municipality of Lautém in the future.
Thus, the Câmara de Lagoa calls on the population to participate in this campaign by donating books, new or used, with the exception of school manuals, in Portuguese, namely comics, dictionaries, encyclopedias, grammars, novels, poetry, thematic, children's and youth.
Donations can be made at the Geminations Office at the premises of the Social Action and Health Services of this Municipality.
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