Asia Business Investor Blog

This week we had the opportunity to meet the President of Asia's newest nation, Timor Leste (East Timor) at the Singapore Foreign Correspondent's Association Annual Gala Dinner in Singapore. Dr Jose Ramos Horta was a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize and is President of this small nation.

The country with a population of only 900,000 is one of Asia's poorest, emerging into nationhood only in May 20th 2002 after a period of occupation by Indonesia. In terms of nation forming, the government is very pro-business and is looking at making rather exceptional incentives for businesses to invest in the country. The economic credentials seem to be off to a sound start due to fiscal responsibility that is not the case in other developing nations.  

East Timor has untapped resources for agriculture, fisheries and tourism. It is also has world class diving and flights linking the country to Singapore (soon to be operating), Indonesia and Darwin will significantly open the market for tourism.

Fortunately, the presence of significant oil and gas revenues has laid a strong foundation for nation building. Significant investments from oil revenues are to be made in infrastructure such as roads and utilities. The presence of strong international support from Australia, Brazil, Portugal, Singapore, the Philippines and Kuwait as well as the World Bank, IMF and the UN. The government of Timor Leste is talking the language of pro-business economic development. They are proposing to reduce taxes to a level one would expect from places such as Dubai by having a tax free state! Could this potentially create a little Dubai in South East Asia? Certainly, this is something of interest to Asia's business community.

Given these incentives, Asia's entrepreneurs should explore business and investment opportunities. Some of the more immediate projects will be related to agriculture potentially coffee, palm oil and vanilla production just to mention a few. Palm oil or biofuel may be very interest projects to explore there. In terms of tourism, there would appear to be quite a few very interesting opportunities. To see more about the tourism in Timor Leste visit www.turismotimorleste.com  

Shortly, we will be listing investment and business opportunites from Timor Leste on the main Asia Business Investor Website. 

It looks like the world's newest nation is going in the right direction.