Australian and Timor Leste will continue discussing ways Timorese workers can work temporarily in Australia but there are no immediate plans for Timor Leste to take part in a guest worker scheme, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday.
The issue for the guest worker plan would be examined as part of broader education, training and employment initiative between the two countries, Rudd said at a joint press conference with visiting Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.
Timor Leste is keen to join a trial scheme launched by the Australian government earlier this month ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum, as remittance from overseas workers is main income of the little island nation.
"One of the matters to report back is this, and that is to be by year's end and possibly earlier, in terms of feasibility," Rudd said.
Under the pilot program, 2,500 workers from Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea will be given temporary work visas to perform seasonal agricultural work, such as fruit-picking.
Gusmao also said the two countries would "continue to talk about this, to discuss ... it will take time."
"We agreed with the Australian government, with the prime minister that we will discuss how we can participate and how the Australian government can give us this (opportunity)," he said.
During their meeting, the two leaders, apart from the worker plan, also discussed the education, training and employment initiative, to find ways to employ the large number of jobless youth in Timor Leste.
"We have agreed to launch a joint education, training and employment initiative which will come back to us with specific recommendations for action by year's end," Rudd said at the press conference.
"In particular, what we are looking at is the needs in the Timor Leste public sector and its public service for an intensified training program- grassroots, middle level and senior level -- in order to make sure that East Timor is properly equipped to address its challenges for development," he said.
Source: Xinhua
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