The new administration led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri faces pressure to diversify its economy away from oil and gas dependence and provide development that tackles the countries searing unemployment and poverty reality.

Alkatiri’s Fretilin party won the most votes in July’s election but failed to get an outright majority.

Lu Olo said in a speech at parliament that the country expected good governance without waste.

“The improvement of well being in our land isn’t achieved with political upheaval. It’s achieved with work, with the participation of everyone and with dedication,” said Lu Olo.

“In 2022 we must hand over to our successors a country whose destiny is for the best future. But before we do the destiny of this nation is in our hands and we have to work hard,” he said.

The President called on members of the new government to be open and honest in their work, emphasising need for equal implementation of national development projects in all 13 municipalities of Timor-Leste.

Falling output from existing oil and gas fields, compounded by weaker commodities prices, have hit the government’s budget mounting pressure to identify new means for economic growth.

Many of the country’s key figures in its 24-year resistance movement for independence against Indonesian rule feature prominently in the new government.

Former Prime Minister and President, Jose Ramos-Horta, was also sworn into the cabinet last month in a new post as Minister of State and Counsellor for National Security.

Hernani Filomena Coelho da Silva has been appointed to the important post of oil minister. He was foreign minister in the previous administration.

Fretilin, which won 23 seats in the election, will join with the Democratic Party to control 30 seats in the 65-seat parliament.