U.N. Sets up Development Agency for East TimorThe United Nations mission in East Timor has established a national development agency there, with the aim of creating a viable planning organization for the territory on its path toward independence, the mission said Friday.The U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) said the new development agency brings together five UNTAET units, namely those in charge of donor coordination, gender affairs, environment protection, economic planning and project assessment, and census and statistics. The agency will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the national program for reconstruction and capacity building. In another development, East Timor's first university will be officially open on November 15, according to UNTAET. Named the National University of East Timor, it has enrolled more than 4,400 students with 120 East Timorese university teachers recruited. It will initially offer courses in agriculture, social and political science, economics, education and polytechnics, previously offered by different institutions of higher learning in the territory. East Timor broke away with Indonesia following a U.N.-sponsored self-determination ballot in August 1999, which resulted in independence. Violence followed the ballot, prompting the U.N. to send peacekeeping troops there. UNTAET was established in October last year to help East Timor transit to independence in a period of two to three years. |
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