Speaking at the Presidential Palace on Friday, Horta said too often Ministers and members of government travelled overseas, signed memorandums of understanding and when they returned to Timor-Leste nothing eventuated.

He recommended that the government’s foreign work travel budget be halved, and that all foreign work visits be left to the Ministry of Cooperatives and Foreign Trade (MNEK).

Currently, he said, each Ministry had a “large” foreign work visit budget.

“Sufficient funds must be allocated to MNEK so they can increase foreign work visits,” he said.

“It would be better if other Ministries focussed on their work.”

The Deputy Finance Minister, Sara Lobo Freitas, has said previously that the government’s foreign visit budget would be reduced in the 2020 State Budget.