Meeting of the East Timor Council of Ministers 15 October 2008

Democratic Republic of East Timor
IV Constitutional Governmentl
Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers
National Directorate for the Dissemination of Information

PRESS RELEASE

Meeting of the Council of Ministers 15 October 2008

The Council of Ministers met this Wednesday, 15th October 2008, in the Council of Ministers meeting room, Government Palace, in Dili where it approved:

1. Decree-Law that approves the Regulation for Restaurants and Similar Establishments

Approved the Decree-Law that regulates the restaurant industry in order to protect the consumer and uphold food security. Since there is a growing concern with hygienic and environmental issues in general, but mostly in swimming areas and beaches, due to increasing tourism, hence there is a pressing need to create a regulation that disciplines the restaurant industry.

Thus, it is important to classify by categories, the several types of establishments and for the restaurants to have a Complaint Book.

In accordance with this Decree-Law, it is now necessary to verify the property and rental documentation, it is also necessary to verify the land titles of tourist establishments, specially those that occupy the beach areas.

2. Decree-Law that changes the Legal Regime of the Passport

The Council of Ministers approved the Decree-Law draft that regulates the new legal regime of the passports, ensuring a greater coherence and security to the system and it is more adjusted to the international security requirements. With this, the passport becomes an individual document, that makes possible optical reading and does not allow further registrations. Both security and red-tape issues were taken into account.

The Council of Ministries also considered:

3. Draft-Law that approves the Civil Code

The Draft-Law of the Civil Code follows the civilist model, and allows the legal actors and the general population, a greater stability regarding regulating the life of a community.

The Civil Code will regulate the legal-private relationships, in the areas of Law where there are relations between legal and natural entities, thus covering the gaps existing in the Indonesian Civil Code which is in force in Timor-Leste. Having said that the Civil Code is divided into five parts:

a) Book I: Illustrates the breath and scope of the Civil Code;
b) Book II: Defines the norms regarding the Law of Obligations ;
c) Book III: Regulates the Property Law;
d) Book IV: Regulates the Family Law;
e) Book V: Regulates the Inheritance Law.

Machine translation from the Original Portuguese text.