Norway is contributing NOK 9 million to reconstruction measures in East Timor

"The Norwegian Government will maintain its involvement in East Timor and will contribute to the independence process," said Anne Kristin Sydnes, Norwegian Minister of International Development, on Sunday 4 March, when she signed the agreement with the World Bank on Norwegian support to the value of NOK 9 million to a fund for reconstruction and long-term development in East Timor. This means that Norway has now contributed a total of NOK 18 million to this fund.

Norway allocated NOK 53 million and NOK 46 million in development assistance to East Timor in 1999 and 2000 respectively.

"The Government will maintain a correspondingly high level of development assistance to East Timor during the critical period leading up to independence," said Ms Sydnes.

East Timor is on the threshold of independence and needs binding commitments from the donor countries. Thus Norway has chosen to gradually phase out humanitarian assistance in favour of more long-term support to reconstruction and development.

The Minister stressed the importance of cooperation between donors, and of the coordination of international development assistance. In order to maximize the effect of its support, Norway has chosen to concentrate on both short-term and long-term development assistance. Most of the Norwegian funds will be channelled through the UN and the World Bank.