Fiscal Reforms Among Initiatives Taken By Timor-Leste In Bid To Become ASEAN Member

By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz and Nor Baizura Basri KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (Bernama) -- Fiscal reforms and diversifying economic activities are among steps taken by Timor-Leste, not only to develop itself, but also to strengthen its bid to become a full-fledged ASEAN member. Timor-Leste's Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Hernani Coelho said that after filing a formal application to ASEAN back in 2011, there had been a lot of progress by the country in many aspects. "We try to deal with bottlenecks that could be stumbling blocks in our journey to become an ASEAN member, including reviewing over 100 ASEAN trade regulations and making necessary adjustments to our trade regulations for future trade and investment activities," he told Bernama Tuesday. Coelho said this on the sidelines of the six-day 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) and related meetings, which kicked off on Aug 1 at the Putra World Trade Centre here. Setting a target of less than five years to be accepted in the grouping, he said that during the period of consultation, the country was even advised to improve on its human resources, basic infrastructure, as well as institutional strengthening, of which some had been achieved. Coelho said that Timor-Leste had also succeeded in rebuilding its institution, achieved political stability and economic development after obtaining its independence in 2002, to pave the way for the country to join ASEAN. Despite not receiving any prerequisites after filing the formal application, he said that the country took its own initiatives by referring to the ASEAN Roadmap, which served as guidelines. He said that this enabled Timor-Leste to achieve the targeted parameters especially on the three pillars of the ASEAN Community - socio-cultural, political security and economic - set to be established under Malaysia's chairmanship at the end of the year. Coelho said that through Timor-Leste, the ASEAN could also tap into the economic potential of neighbouring countries and other economic groupings like the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP). "Under the CPLP, we have nine member countries from Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. We can serve as a bridge and facilitate the communication and cooperation between ASEAN and these countries when we become an ASEAN member," he added. CPLP, which also comprises Angola, Portugal, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Brazil, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea Equatorial, has a population of 255 million people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.5 trillion. Apart from that, ASEAN nations can also explore investment opportunities particularly in oil and gas, agriculture and tourism, Coelho said. "We have a liberal investment climate for foreign investors. Currently, our biggest investors are Australia and Italy, mostly in oil and gas sector," he added. Timor-Leste first raised its interest to join ASEAN in 1974, but the idea was put on hold due to political instability until the country became a sovereign state on May 20, 2002. Since then, Coelho said much improvements could be seen with the country's GDP in non-oil industry growing at 2.8 per cent annually while purchasing power parity per capita is between US$5,700 and US$6,000. -- BERNAMA