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 East Timor Location:
8°34'S, 125°34'E
Geography:
The island of Timor is part of the Malay archipelago and the largest and easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. To the north of the mountainous island are the Ombai Strait and Wetar Strait, to the south the Timor Sea separates the island from Australia, while to the west lies the Indonesian Province of East Nusa Tenggara. The highest point of East Timor is Mount Ramelau (also known as Mount Tatamailau) at 2,963 meters (9,721 ft).
The local climate is tropical and generally hot and humid, characterised by distinct rainy and dry seasons. The capital, largest city and main port is Dili, and the second-largest city is the eastern town of Baucau. Dili has the only functioning international airport, though there are airstrips in Baucau and Oecusse used for domestic flights. Dili's airport runway is unable to accommodate large aircraft
East Timor People:
Population
- July 2005 estimate 947,000 (155th)
- Density 64 /km2 (132nd)
166 /sq mi
East Timor Government:
Government Republic
- President José Ramos Horta
- Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva
East Timor Economy:
Prior to and during colonisation, Timor was best known for its sandalwood. In late 1999, about 70% of the economic infrastructure of East Timor was laid waste by Indonesian troops and anti-independence militias, and 260,000 people fled westward. Over the next three years a massive international program led by the UN, manned by civilian advisers, 5,000 peacekeepers (8,000 at peak) and 1,300 police officers, led to substantial reconstruction in both urban and rural areas. By mid-2002, all but about 50,000 of the refugees had returned. This successful UN effort was headed by Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, later to become High Commissioner for Human Rights (and subsequently killed in Baghdad, August 2003).
The country faces great challenges in continuing to rebuild the infrastructure and strengthen the infant civil administration. One promising long-term project is the joint development with Australia of petroleum and natural gas resources in the waters southeast of Timor.
The Portuguese colonial administration granted a concession to Oceanic Exploration Corporation, of Denver, Colorado, to develop the petroleum deposits of the Timor Sea. Before the concession could begin to be developed, the Indonesian invasion made it impossible.
Timor Sea petroleum resources were divided between Indonesia and Australia by the Timor Gap Treaty in 1989 [2] which established guidelines for joint exploitation of seabed resources in the area of the "gap" left by then-Portuguese Timor in the maritime boundary agreed between the two countries in 1972. [3] Revenues from the "joint" area were to be divided 50%-50%. Woodside Petroleum and ConocoPhillips began development of some resources in the Timor Gap on behalf of the two governments in 1992.
OCEX currently has a $30B lawsuit against ConocoPhillips pending in US District Court in New York. This lawsuit is the company's sole significant asset; to fund the suit, it relies on the deep pockets of its majority owner, James Neal Blue, who also owns General Atomics (maker of the RQ-1 Predator drone aircraft).
East Timor inherited no permanent maritime boundaries when it attained independence, repudiating the Timor Gap Treaty as illegal. A provisional agreement (the Timor Sea Treaty, signed when East Timor became independent on 20 May 2002) defined a Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), and awarded 90% of revenues from existing projects in that area to East Timor and 10% to Australia. [4] The first significant new development in the JPDA since Timorese independence is the largest petroleum resource in the Timor Sea, the Greater Sunrise gas field. Its exploitation was the subject of separate agreements in 2003 and 2005. Only 20% of the field lies within the JPDA and the rest in waters not subject to the treaty (though claimed by both countries). The initial, temporary agreement gave 82% of revenues to Australia and only 18% to East Timor.
The Government of East Timor has sought to negotiate a definite boundary with Australia at the halfway line between the countries, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Government of Australia preferred to establish the boundary at the end of the wide Australian continental shelf, as agreed with Indonesia in 1972 and 1991. Normally a dispute such as this could be referred to the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for an impartial decision, [6] but the Australian government had withdrawn itself from these international jurisdictions (solely on matters relating to maritime boundaries) shortly before Timorese independence. [7] [8] Nevertheless, under public and diplomatic pressure the Australian government offered instead a last-minute concession on Greater Sunrise gas field royalties alone. [9] On July 7, 2005, an agreement was signed under which both countries would set aside the dispute over the maritime boundary, and East Timor would receive 50% of the revenues (estimated at A$26 billion or about US$20 billion over the lifetime of the project [10]) from the Greater Sunrise development. Other developments within waters claimed by East Timor but outside the JPDA (Laminaria-Corallina and Buffalo) continue to be exploited unilaterally by Australia, however.
East Timor also has a large and potentially lucrative coffee industry, which sells organic coffee to numerous Fair Trade retailers and on the open market.
Currently three foreign banks have a branch in Dili: Australia's ANZ, Portugal's Banco Nacional Ultramarino, and Indonesia's Bank Mandiri.
East Timor More Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Timor  |
