Pilot Public-Private Partnership
to Expand
Timor-Leste’s Coffee Sector
Signaling the start of an innovative public-private partnership
for development in Timor-Leste, USAID will be signing a Memorandum
of Understanding tomorrow, 16 January 2008, at 3 p.m., with
Cooperativa Café Timor (CCT), the National Cooperative
Business Association (NCBA), and a major U.S. trade and investment
company, Cooperative Business International (CBI). U.S. Ambassador
Hans G. Klemm will lead the signing ceremony at CCT’s
main office in Dili.
The agreement is USAID’s first Global Development Alliance
in Timor-Leste and establishes an effective, joint venture financing,
marketing and management services company partnering CCT and
CBI. This two-year project is designed to upgrade the capacity
of the 22,000-coffee farmers’ cooperative to meet the
increasingly sophisticated demands of the international coffee
market.
USAID committed US$300,000 to the project, which will be used
to leverage an additional US$1 million contribution from CBI
for strengthening and expanding Timor-Leste’s vital coffee
sector.
Recognizing the growing interest and significant contributions
of the private sector in meeting international development goals,
USAID created the Global Development Alliance business model
in 2001 to capitalize on the expertise, energy and resources
of corporations, foundations, the faith-based community, indigenous
organizations, and other nontraditional partners. Worldwide,
USAID has invested over $1.4 billion across 400 public-private
partnerships, leveraging over $4.6 billion in partner contributions.
This Global Development Alliance comes at a time when the Government
of Timor-Leste is still developing its economic policies and
business regulations, which include a new foreign investment
law. The project will, therefore, be one of the first major
joint-venture undertakings under the new foreign investment
law and, as such, will serve as a test case for the Government
as well as an example to others considering investments in Timor-Leste.
