Overview
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Overview

H.E. Ms. Emilia Pires Minister of Finance

Ms. Emilia Pires was sworn in as the Minister for Finance of the IV Constitutional Government of Timor-Leste on 8th August 2007.

Her educational qualifications include a Bachelor degree majoring in Mathematics (Statistics) from Latrobe University, post graduate studies in Government Law from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Science in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK.

Ms. Pires has over 20 years of management experience and 25 years of community planning and development work. Her professional career includes 7 years of senior posts with both the United Nations and the World Bank. Prior to her assumption as Minister of Finance, Ms. Pires held the post of UNMIT Senior Coordination Advisor on the International Compact to the DSRSG in Timor-Leste.

She started her professional career at the age of 22 as a junior public servant with the Victorian Government and where she reached senior management level. Her other posts include working as a World Bank’s Senior Aid Management Specialist in West Bank & Gaza, where she advised both the ministries of Finance and Planning of the Palestinian Authority and donors on aid coordination to the economic sector; as UNMISET’s Senior Advisor to the Timor-Leste Ministry of Planning and Finance; as UNTAET’s Head of the Planning Commission Secretariat as well as the Chief of the National Development and Planning Agency (NPDA).

Ms. Pires’ notable achievements include leading the formulation of the first Timorese National Development Plan and the East Timor’s Vision 2020 which were required to secure international aid to Timor-Leste at the 2nd donors pledging conference in May 2002; chairing the Poverty Assessment Steering Committee which guided the production of the first poverty assessment in Timor-Leste and the UNDP Working Group to produce the first East Timor National Human Development Report. In April 2005, Ms. Pires was invited by George Soros to sit on the Southeast Asia Advisory Board of the Open Society Institute, contributing to policy discussions on pertinent regional development issues.

Ms. Pires has also been invited to act as Keynote Speaker at various high level forums among some, the Senior Level Forum on Development Effectiveness in Fragile States in London organized by DFID, OECD, World Bank, UNDP and EU; the “Deepening Voice and Accountability to fight poverty” Dialogue sponsored by the Communication Implementers in Paris; the 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Accra, Ghana where she co-chaired the session on “New Development Challenges and New Development Partnerships: the Relevance and Urgency of Aid Reform”; and in the “Balancing State and Peace-Building: An evolving Development Agenda”, held during the 2008 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC, USA.

Among some of her articles published to date, include “How will the macroeconomy be managed in an Independent East Timor? An East Timorese view”, which was published in the IMF Finance & Development magazine; “National Perspective on Public Finance Reform: the East Timorese Case” published by the New York University; and “Hard-earned lessons from ten years of state- and peace-building in Timor-Leste” to be released by the WBI Development Outreach on Fragility and Conflict.