Chinese Government provides grant for Digital Terrestrial Television Transmission System (DTMB) Project

Project narrative

In January 2014, Timor-Leste's Secretary of State for Social Communication, Mericio Akara, proposed the Digital Terrestrial Television Transmission System (DTMB) Project to the Chinese Government. The project involves the installation of two DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) broadcasting stations in Dili and its surrounding areas that meet the standards set by the International Telecommunication Union. Upon completion, the project expected to deliver digital television services to more than 30,000 families and 190,000 people. On May 3, 2017, Chinese Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Liu Hongyang, and Timor-Leste’s Foreign Minister Coelho signed an exchange of notes regarding the project on behalf of their respective governments. Then, on December 5, 2018, the Timorese Council of Ministers approved the project. On March 5, 2019, a project implementation agreement was signed. On June 18, 2019, a formal groundbreaking ceremony took place at the headquarters of RTTL (Radio Television Timor-Leste). However, project implementation did not commence until September 2019. According to Ambassador Xiao’s speech during the event, the National Engineering Laboratory for Digital TV (Beijing) and the China Potevio Co., Ltd are the project managers and contractors, respectively. On January 14, 2020, Ambassador Xiao Jianguo conducted an on-site project inspection. However, project implementation was halted for a period during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was officially completed on July 12, 2021. Approximately on month earlier, on June 2, 2021, Timor-Leste’s Council of Ministers authorized its Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Social Communication, Francisco Martins da Costa Pereira Jerónimo, to negotiate an agreement with the Government of the People's Republic of China for the Second Phase of the Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) System Project in Timor-Leste. The project’s second phase will seek to increase the national coverage of digital terrestrial television with the installation of more broadcasting stations.