A $1,460 Deal for Manatuto Soybean Farmer

With the aid of PDT’s district Matchmaking (MM) team, local Manatuto farmer Abilio Joao Martins was able to find a buyer for 2,921kg of soybeans worth $1,460.50.

Gilberto Amaral, PDT’s Viqueque District Representative, was contacted by a previous client, Mr. Venancio Siqueira Ximenes, who had purchased a large sum of soybeans in Viqueque. Mr. Ximenes, satisfied with his first purchase, sought an additional quantity of soybeans to sell to wholesalers in Dili. Mr. Amaral in turn contacted Matchmaking staff in the district of Manatuto who were able to quickly link Mr. Ximenes with Mr. Martins, despite the fact they had never met face to face before.

Manatuto MM team members Benigno Humberto da Cruz (center) and Fransisco Remedios Quintao (right) with Mr. Abilio Joao Martins.

After the transaction, Mr. Martins expressed his satisfaction with PDT’s Matchmaking system in the districts, citing that its services motivate him to continue to work in the agricultural arena. This particular sale of soybeans has substantially increased both Mr. Martin’s income and standard of living. As a result, his children now have four bicycles to go back and forth from school each day. Currently, PDT’s Matchmaking teams operate in 9 out of the 13 districts of Timor-Leste. For more information about the Matchmaking program, please contact Ilidio Ximenes +670.723.3335 or Brigida Soares +670.729.8264. For addition inquires about PDT's operations in  Timor-Leste, please email timor-leste@pdtglobal.org.

PDT’s Matchmaking activities are funded by AusAid.

Success for Rice Farmers in District of Viqueque

Peace Dividend Trust's Micro Matchmaking Assistants in the district of Viqueque Gilberto Amaral, Antonio do Rosario and Vasco Maria Perreira have worked together over the past four months to secure a large transaction of field rice for Mr. Mario da Costa, a Seed Production Officer from the Seeds of Life program. The PDT Viqueque team utilized their extensive network of local suppliers to find enough rice to fill Mr. da Costa's order of 64,500kg resulting in a transaction worth $32,250 awarded to Viqueque farmers.

In addition to facilitating district based transactions, PDT's Micro Matchmaking team has undergone a bit of restructuring as it has absorbed control of the Dili based Matchmaking program. All services offered by Matchmaking and Micro Matchmaking will continue to run normally, as they are both now under the leadership of the previous Micro Matchmaking Associates Ilidio Ximenes and Brigida Soares.

PDT's Matchmaking and Micro Matchmaking activities are funded by AusAID and Eni.

Timorese Cattle - a domestic product for an international market.

Peace Dividend Trust's (PDT) Micro Matchmaking (M3) rural business development and facilitation team has been working on facilitating the sale of Timorese cattle to Indonesian buyers for nearly two years.  This is a business activity which has a long history over the past decades as Indonesian appetites for "beef on the hoof" have expanded with its population growth.  However recent events have broken down communication links both inside and outside the country.  PDT is working hard to restore these links and promote business across the rural districts of Timor-Leste.  An increase in business correlates to job creation and wealth generation.

Since 2008 PDT has been assisting the owner of Suai based RAFLIMA (Tafara) Cattle, Mr. Rosito Manek, to source cattle for an Atambua (West Timor, Indonesia) based buyer  (Alowisius Lay, owner of UD Pratama in Atambua).  PDT has also been assisting in sourcing cattle from Mr. Casmiro Fernando, a Bobonaro supplier.  To view RAFLIMA's BuildingMarkets.org profile click here.

PDT Cova Lima has facilitated the sale of 680 head of cattle from local ranchers to Mr. Manek with an estimated value of $185,150. Mr. Manek then exports the cattle to UD Pratama in Indonesia. This month (November 2009), Mr. Manek has 300 more cows available to sell to Atambua, but is awaiting a new license to export from the government of Timor-Leste.

Meanwhile PDT Bobonaro has facilitated the sale of 350 head of cattle from local ranchers to Mr. Fernando with an estimated value of $70,955. Mr. Fernando then exports the cattle to UD Pratama in Atambua.  See below for Bobonaro cattle ready for sale.

Mr. Manek and Mr. Fernando were already exporting cows to Atambua but wanted to export on a larger scale. PDT M3 teams in Covalima and Bobonaro assisted the two middlemen in locating and purchasing cattle across their respective districts, resulting in a marked increase in sales and a cash injection into rural Timor-Leste.

RAFLIMA has a website as well - 

For more information contact Ilidio da Costa Ximenes via iximenes[at]pdtglobal.org or timor-leste[at]pdtglobal.org

PDT Micro Matching activities are funded by AusAID and Eni.

Peace Dividend Trust Breaks Ground with the Use of SMS.

English translation below.

Ba Publikasaun Emidiatu: Dili – Timor-Leste

Peace Dividend Trust Breaks Ground Liu Husi SMS.

Hahu husi fulan Fevreiro 2008 Peace Dividend Trust (PDT) halao ona programa micro -matchmaking (ligasaun kiik) iha distrito 6, no aumenta ba didtrito 9 iha fulan Fevreiro 2009. Ida ne’e inkluido husi Lautem, Baucau, Viqueque, Manatuto, Manufahi, Ainaro, Cova Lima, Bobonaro no Oecusse. Aktividades ne’e fokus/haree liu ba hamosu, no ou fasilita ba transaksaun negosio iha area rurais entre sosa nain lokal no internasional. Usa kapasidade lokal nebe iha base no base de dadus Peace Dividend Trust Building Markets husi tim micro-matchmaking nebe manaje ona 4, 300 transaksaun negosio iha distrito 9 iha area rurais. Transaksaun sira nebe halao ona mak balun hanesan; halal chicken ba officiais UNPOL, transaksaun medium ba karau vaka nebe halao internal no external iha Timor-Leste no mos iha transaksaun ba seitores konstrusaun no aluga.

Brigada Soares - PDT, Dili.

Atu hatoo ou habelar informasaun kona ba negosius iha area nebe ho geografia mak luan tebes la fasil atu halo monitorisasaun no relatorio ba aktividades atu hetan diak ba serwisu. Maibe resultado husi Team PDT ba Micro-Matchmaking hanesan pioner ida nebe hahu usa sistema SMS (Short Message Service) nebe mak sistematiku tebes hodi simu no haruka informasaun ba operasaun implementasaun serwisu no relatorio.

Tim PDT ba Micro-matchmaking haruka relatorio nebe usa kodiku iha SMS ba PDT iha Dili iha lor-loron kona ba informasaun transaksaun nebe halao entre sosa nain/komprador, faan nain/fornesedor no kona sasan. Too ba agora dadaun ne’e PDT Dili simu ona liu husi 2, 100 SMS husi staff iha distrito ba iha Dili informa kona ba sira nia aktividades. Ida ne;e hatudu katak halao buat ida mak efesiensia liu no konsidera la usa tempo barak no osan barak maibe lori lian no halao serwisu nebe produktivo ba sosa nain/komprador no faan nain/fornesedor ihaq Timor-Leste.

Atu hetan informasaun klean liu bele haree iha Peace Dividend Trust at timorleste@peacedividendtrust.org no Ilidio da Costa Ximenes Vice Director PDT, iximenes@pdtglobal..org Mobile: +670 723 3335

For Immediate Release: Dili – Timor-Leste

Peace Dividend Trust Breaks Ground with the Use of SMS.

Since February 2008 Peace Dividend Trust (PDT) has been conducting micro-matchmaking activities in 6 districts, and 9 since February 2009. These include Lautem, Baucau, Viqueque, Manatuto, Manufahi, Ainaro, Cova Lima, Bobonaro and Oecusse. These activities are focused on creating, and or facilitating business transactions in rural areas between local and international buyers and local suppliers. Using local on the ground knowledge and the Peace Dividend Trust Building Markets database the micromatchmaking team has managed over 4,300 business transactions in the above 9 rural districts. These range from the provision of halal chicken to UN Police officers, medium scale cattle transactions internal and external to Timor-Leste in addition to property construction and rental.

Given the large amount of business information being generated across such a large geographical space monitoring and reporting of this activity has been critical for success. As result the PDT Micromatchmaking Team has pioneered the systematic use of SMS (Short Message Service) facilities to send and receive information for operations implementation and reporting.

All PDT Micromatchmaking Teams send a coded SMS message to PDT HQ in Dili at the end of every business day detailing the transactions conducted with information on buyer, supplier, and good/service. Spread across all teams this means that PDT HQ has received over 2,100 SMS messages from its district staff informing HQ of their activities. This has enable efficiencies, and saved a considerable amount of time and money in ensuring the delivery of a sound and productive service to buyers and suppliers in Timor-Leste.

Peace Dividend Trust is also moving forward with more ambitious plans to use blast bulk SMS for the delivery of tender / contract alerts in the future.

For more information please contact Peace Dividend Trust at timor-leste@peacedividendtrust.org and Ilidio da Costa Ximenes Vice Director PDT, iximenes@pdtglobal.org Mobile: +670 723 3335

Rural Matchmaking: 6 Districts

The Peace Dividend Trust has staff in Dili and 6 districts; including the largest and the most isolated, Lautem, Baucau, Ainaro, Cova Lima, Bobonaro and Oecusse. Staff in these districts provide local procurement matchmaking services to international organisations and personnel conducting activities at the District level.

If you want to buy locally and thus support economic development in the Districts, where it counts most contact either PDT staff in the Districts directly (E) denotes English Speaking. All speak Bahasa and some speak Portuguese. All operate in their home districts.

Micro Matchmaking Associate

Ilidio Ximenes +670 723 3335 iximenes@peacedividendtrust.org (E)

Micro Matchmaking Assistants Lautem
Octavio Lopes +670 732 3837 (E)
Quiteria Fernandes +670 5705 (E)

Baucau Representative
Adalgiza Freitas Marcal +670 724 9580 (E)
Micromatchmaking Assistants Baucau
Helven Bento +670 734 4649 (E)
Gualdina Wollo +670 728 8944 (E)

Micro Matchmaking Assistants Ainaro
Siler Ramalho +670 726 9584 (E)
Aderito do Nacimento +670 734 7139

Micro Matchmaking Assistants Cova Lima
Antonio Fahik Alves + 670 729 4020
Maria Barros +670 735 0715 (E)

Micro Matchmaking Assistants Bobonaro
Domingos Savio Dos Reis +670 733 8020
Domingos Amaral +670 727 1645 (E)

Micro Matchmaking Assistants Oecusse
Arnol Suni +670 735 1179
Linda Naheten +670 731 9232 (E)



Additionally, PDT is conducting a national business verification in which the profiles of all businesses active in Timor-Leste from Fatu Sinai to Jaco and from Tasi Mane to Tasi feto will be lodged on the Timor-Leste Online Procurement Database. This database will go live online on 20 May 2008.