Dili, March 29, 2025 (Média Democracia) – The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Timor-Leste (CCI-TL) and the Business Registration and Verification Service, Public Institute (SERVE.IP) have established a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen services in assisting the collection of data on companies registered with SERVE.IP.
The President of CCI-TL, Jorge Serrano, stated that the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aims to bring the two institutions closer in collaboration. As the Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a strategic partner of the government, it cannot operate alone. Therefore, CCI-TL highly appreciates SERVE.IP’s Director for this initiative.
“I bring CCI-TL’s name to express appreciation to the Director of SERVE for his efforts and approach in engaging with us to collaborate in assisting with data collection. I believe that SERVE has been carrying out its duties for many years in business registration, and despite many challenges, they have successfully registered numerous companies, allowing economic activities in Timor to operate smoothly,” said the President of CCI-TL at the CCI-TL Conference Room this Thursday (27/03/2025).
The President believes that the data collection conducted by the Chamber of Commerce is supported by public subsidy funds from the Vice Prime Minister, who also serves as the Minister of Economic Affairs, Environment, and Tourism. Therefore, with the signing of this agreement, CCI-TL is not taking over SERVE’s responsibilities but rather focusing on issuing licenses for economic activities.
“The objective of this data collection is not to take over SERVE’s responsibilities. Instead, SERVE and the relevant authorities are responsible for issuing licenses to companies in Timor for economic activities, business, and trade, as well as granting investor certificates. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry serves as a guide for all entrepreneurs in the verification process, as our role also includes advocacy in business registration. Therefore, companies that register with us must go through a verification process,” he explained.
Through the license verification process, we will assess whether a company is truly operating according to its registration, whether it contributes to employment, and whether a large company is genuinely engaged in major economic activities. This is important because, at times, licenses are granted to large companies, but upon review, they either create disorder or operate at the level of a medium-sized business instead.
He stated that the objective of this collaboration is to improve services between the two institutions for better efficiency and effectiveness.
“I believe that state institutions, along with government agencies, working together with the Chamber of Commerce, we can extend our hands to each other. I am confident that we will ensure many positive outcomes, create opportunities, and organize things well. Therefore, we seek to collaborate, not just saying we have a free market, but we also need to organize the market properly to avoid any confusion among the public that we are only providing a simple facilitation,” he said.
As the Executive Director of SERVE.IP, Fausto Soares Dias, he expressed his gratitude to the President of CCI-TL for his strong commitment. Additionally, the director informed that during his mandate, he has observed data from single-member and limited companies, with almost a million registered, but the job opportunities are still limited within the country.
“I am not aware of the beneficiaries of these Limited and Single-member companies. We are trying to improve, saying that the services are lacking, but the companies are still operating here. I am not completely sure about the output, so I appreciate the work being done by CCI-TL in collaboration with SERVE.IP. We all need to follow the regulations related to these services, and I hope SERVE.IP will continue working together to understand these issues,” said the Executive Director of SERVE.IP.
He emphasized that SERVE.IP is working on the ground with Municipal Administrators and Post Offices to assist with the business license requests for foreign companies operating in the municipalities.
“They often claim, the director says, that we only issue licenses, but China is the one entering our municipalities. Therefore, I tell them that our laws open the path to a free market. We should ask ourselves how we can manage a free market if we don’t have control over what happens. We may become spectators in our own land because we are allowing these things to happen freely,” he emphasized.
The director said that they are seeking to create a mechanism to carefully assess whether the companies are benefiting or not. This is the intention of SERVE.IP in collaborating with CCI-TL, believing that with branches in various locations, they can support activities within the territory and accelerate the process. Once the data is complete, we will be able to finalize it.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania