Small Enterprises Project

closed

The Small Enterprises Project for East Timor aims to help restart economic activities viable in the private sector, through lending on commercial terms, and to promote sustainable employment in urban areas; to prepare complementary follow-up programs; and to restore essential elements of a land and property administration system. There are three project components. The first provides small loans for private businesses. The second component strengthens land and property administration in order to reduce uncertainty and the lack of public confidence presently characterizing the land property environment in East Timor, and to alleviate conflicting claims on land, which risks social disruption and constrains the urgently needed reestablishment of businesses and public services. This component funds the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat), which will provide and manage technical assistance to strengthen the service delivery of the UN Transitional Administration's (UNTAET) Land and Property Commission. Service delivery will be improved in the areas of land registration, cadastral survey and mapping, and land law; and policies will be reviewed relating to land rights adjudication and allocation of public and abandoned property. The third component finances technical assistance, specifically consultant services and the initial fixed costs of the commercial bank that is to intermediate, administer, and implement the loan component and handle disbursement.