WB finds cause for optimism in E. Timor review<\/p>\n
DILI, East Timor (AP): A World Bank fact-finding mission said
\nThursday it has found reasons to be optimistic about the recovery
\nof battered East Timor.<\/p>\n
\"Our overall impression: it could be worse,\" said Klaus
\nRohland, director of the mission that is halfway through its
\nwork. \"There are some signs of moving to the future.\"<\/p>\n
After East Timor's people voted overwhelmingly in an Aug. 30
\nreferendum to become independent of Indonesia, pro-Jakarta
\nmilitias and their Indonesian army allies went on a devastating
\nrampage of arson and looting.<\/p>\n
An international peacekeeping force arrived Sept. 20 to
\nrestore order in the former Portuguese colony that Indonesia
\ninvaded in 1975. The United Nations is preparing to administer
\nthe territory for two to three years until it is ready for
\nindependence.<\/p>\n
Rohland said the World Bank's education and health teams
\narrived Thursday, and a coffee expert was heading to the
\nhighlands growing area Friday. High-quality coffee is East
\nTimor's main export, and Rohland says it could be a cornerstone
\nof the economy.<\/p>\n
Other experts are still arriving. The bank team is to present
\nits report to potential aid donors next month.<\/p>\n
Two sectors with relatively good outlooks were
\ntelecommunications and power generation.<\/p>\n
Telecommunications could be re-established in 10-12 months -
\n\"a comparatively short time,\" Rohland said. While electrical
\ntransformers and switches were destroyed, generators could be
\nrestored to operating condition relatively quickly.<\/p>\n
Roads on the half-island territory suffered no substantial
\ndamage, but a resumption of maintenance was necessary,
\nparticularly with the onset of the rainy season tha already has
\nhit some areas, he said.<\/p>\n
Rohland told reporters that East Timor's financial sector was
\n\"essentially dead,\" with almost all banking records destroyed or
\nmissing.<\/p>\n
He added, however, that the effect on the local economy might
\nnot be as bad as originally feared, because anecdotal evidence
\nsuggested that 80 percent of the accounts and credits belonged to
\nnon-Timorese Indonesians.<\/p>\n
He hoped that the banks' central offices in Jakarta might
\nprovide the missing information.<\/p>\n
Some reconstruction of essential records and information has
\nbeen done with the help of East Timorese who worked at local
\nenterprises and volunteered their knowledge and insight, he said.<\/p>\n
\"What they are doing is almost an archaeological kind of work,
\nreconstructing East Timor on paper with a view to helping to
\nreconstruct it on the ground,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A major short-term concern is shelter. Rohland praised the
\nwork so far of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He said
\nthe agency was about to bring in substantial amounts of
\nprefabricated material to ease the problem.<\/p>\n
He admitted that an unpleasant side-effect of a humanitarian
\nor peacekeeping operation is \"you bring in a lot of people with a
\nlot of money, and that kind of distorts the economy and is bound
\nto have an inflationary effect on prices.\"<\/p>\n
\"So what we are looking into is to create some sort of social
\nfund that would mitigate the effect of this on the poor,\" Rohland
\nsaid. \"In the meantime, we must take care in designing mechanisms
\nto avoid distortions of the economy.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/wb-finds-cause-for-optimism-in-e-timor-review-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}