The President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, on Saturday in Maputo, pointed to the “expansion and popularisation” of the Portuguese language in his country as one of the main challenges facing the Timorese executive.
“For us, one of our greatest efforts is to popularise and expand knowledge of the Portuguese language, because when we gained independence in 2002, practically nobody spoke Portuguese anymore,” said José Ramos-Horta.
The Timorese head of state was speaking to journalists after a visit to the Aga Khan Academy in the city of Matola, Maputo province, as part of his state visit to Mozambique until Sunday.
“Today more than 30 per cent already speak Portuguese,” said José Ramos-Horta.
For the head of state, in their own territories, the former Portuguese colonies did more for the language after independence.
Portuguese colonisation “left Mozambique in 1975 with at least 7 percent of people speaking Portuguese. Independent Mozambique did more for the Portuguese language than Portugal and today 70 per cent of the Mozambican population speaks Portuguese. Guinea-Bissau today has 30 per cent of the population speaking Portuguese, but in 1974 it was less than 10 per cent,” said José Ramos-Horta.
The President recognised that East Timor still has major challenges in terms of training staff, but highlighted the cooperation and collaboration of the states of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) over the years to make up the shortfall.
“One of our main priorities since independence has been education, we’ve made enormous progress (…) We had one university with 10,000 students, today we have 18, with a student population of 40,000 to 60,000,” he said.
Still within the framework of co-operation between the two states, the President of East Timor said that he wants Mozambican experience in the area of education to boost the teaching of exact sciences in his country, which are essential for societies.
“I invest in science and technology and less in the humanities, because in many third world countries we have many PhDs in philosophy, theology, history, international relations, but few in technology, digitalisation, artificial intelligence, medicine, economics and industry,” he said.
On Friday, Mozambique and East Timor signed three agreements for co-operation in the areas of politics, education and mineral resources, as part of a working visit to Mozambique by the Timorese head of state.
The agreements were signed by the heads of diplomacy of the two countries, Mozambican Verónica Macamo and Timorese Bendito dos Santos Freitas, moments after a meeting between the Presidents of Mozambique and East Timor.
The agreements provide for the two countries to co-operate in various ways in the areas of political consultation, higher education and hydrocarbons and mines.
After Mozambique, the head of state of East Timor will head to Angola on a visit he is making between Monday and Wednesday, also to strengthen bilateral relations and co-operation within the CPLP.
Lusa
