Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2013

Abstract

The small island-state of Timor-Leste exemplifies the challenge of resource-based development for a poor country well-endowed with a valuable natural resource. Timor-Leste, which gained its independence in 2002, has accumulated $13 billion in its petroleum fund in less than a decade. Some of the largest multinational oil companies are operating in the country, and the revenues continue to flow. And yet, while Timor-Leste has seen very notable improvements in its development indicators in the past few years, it continues to face a massive challenge of converting financial wealth into economic development. There are also heated debates about how to spend the oil revenues, or whether to spend them at all as opposed to accumulating them in an overseas fund.

Disciplines

Environmental Law | International Humanitarian Law | International Law | Law | Law and Economics | Natural Resources Law | Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law | Securities Law | Transnational Law

Share

COinS