Timor-Leste: Timor-Leste Appears to Abandon Sustainability

Feb 28, 2025 | Damien Kingsbury, Pearls and Irritations
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More than two decades ago, the then soon to be independent country of Timor-Leste planned to embark on a future marked by sustainability, avoiding the economic traps that befall many other newly independent countries. Former resistance leader, future president, later prime minister, Xanana Gusmao extolled the virtues of using local materials for housing while there was consensus that the government would only use sustainable withdrawals from its then fledgling Petroleum Fund to finance the state budget.