Possibility for Horta to become UN ambassador to Guinea Bissau

*Independente, December 20, 2012 Language source: Tetun

Former President of the Republic and Senior Diplomat, Jose Ramos Horta will be appointed to become the ambassador to Guinea Bissau to resolve the ongoing conflict in that country.

"We will talk about it later, now I am waiting the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's decision and the decision will be taken shortly," Horta told Independente, yesterday.

He added that he would talk about his programs and mission that would be carried out in Guinea Bissau when having the UN's decision.

A factory in Timor? Five countries where corruption is on its way out

By Naomi Rovnick ­ 

Each year, Transparency International produces its “Corruption Perceptions Index,” which ranks 176 countries based on how corrupt their people believe public officials are.  For business people, a better name might be the “brown envelope index”­for the oft-inevitable paybacks to public officials as the cost of entering or operating in certain places.

Today, media across the world will examine their own country’s performance, and those that achieve poor rankings for their notoriety (more on that later). But global business leaders who really want to get things done should perhaps focus on where corruption is on its way out.

So here’s the good news. The following countries moved furthest up the TI index  for perceived corruption in the last 12 months; the higher up a country is the less corrupt its officials. They all still have a long way to climb up the table and remain plagued by poverty and graft. But progress is being made in the nations of Timor-Leste, Sao Tome & Principe, Mongolia, Armenia, and the Philippines. The full survey is here.

Perceptions of official corruption have improved in these nations mostly because of changes in government, with new leaders promising to fight graft. Here’s a closer look:

Timor-Leste (113th place from 143rd last year), otherwise known as East Timor, is a former Portuguese colony bordering Indonesia known for its extreme poverty and regular outbreaks of violence. It also has plentiful oil and gas reserves. Having won independence from Indonesia in 2002, it remains volatile. But democratic elections in July passed peacefully. And the government has won popularity by chasing international oil majors for what it claims are billions of dollars in unpaid oil taxes. Timor’s jump up the rankings is embarrassing for Indonesia, which sees itself as more civilized than that its neighbor but plunged to 118th place in the Transparency International Index chart this year, down from 100th in 2011.

 Sao Tome & Principe (72nd from number 100 last year), another former Portuguese colony , is a tiny economy in the Gulf of Guinea with a dwindling cocoa crop and high external debt. It also has rich oil and gas reserves and has just started auctioning off exploration sites. Corruption allegations have surrounded the auction process. But peoples’ new optimism seems to have derived from presidential elections that took place last August, whichreturned former strongman ruler Manuel Pinta de Costa to power. He won the presidential race by, in part, promising to tackle graft. And it seems, for now, the people of Sao Tome believe he will not let them down.

Mongolia (94th from 120th last year) is another resource-rich, but largely poor country. Inhabiting a vast land mass between China and Russia, this democratic former Soviet satellite has for the last few years been unlocking its vast reserves of copper, coal and other minerals. Its population have been complaining vociferously about corruption and a rising wealth gap ever since the mineral boom began. And earlier this year, former president Nambar Enkhbayer was sentenced to four years in prison for graft. Amnesty International condemned the sentencing as arbitrary, and many international commentators said it was a show trial. But the country’s new president has promised to tackle corruption and introduce sorely needed judicial reforms, which seems to have sparked optimism.

The arrest of a former president has also increased perceptions corruption is improving in the Philippines (up from joint 129th to joint 105th). Gloria Arroyo, the former ruler of the impoverished archipelago, was arrested in October, accused of fraudulently transferring money from a domestic charity.  She denies the accusations. Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian nation’s economy is doing better than forecast.

Armenia (tied with Philippines, up from joint 129th to joint 105th), a landlocked country between Georgia and Turkey, has serious problems with graft.In this report, the OECD castigated Armenia for failing to implement anti-corruption laws while also failing to investigate graft-related offenses. But despite continuing evidence to the contrary, president Serzh Sargsyan has vowed he is pushing forwardto tackle rampant corruption. The nation’s economy grew at a healthy 7% clip in the year to September too, suggesting people may not be feeling happier with their public officials than they were last year, when the nation was still emerging from a financial crisis (pdf).

Meanwhile, these nations fell furthest down the graft rankings this year: Bangladesh, Albania, Indonesia, Madagascar and Eritrea.

Timor-Leste has reached a lot of progresses: ASEAN’s Surin Pitswuan

The General Secretary of ASEAN, Surin Pitsuwan

*Timornewsline December 5, 2012

General-Secretary of the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN), Surin Pitsuwan Visits Timor-Leste to take a look closer at the development progresses in the country.

“I am very happy with Timor-Leste’s commitment to make change its development in the country so I am very interest in the leadership of the president, prime minister and foreign minister to work hard to bring Timor-Leste to the ASEAN,” Pitsuwan said.

Mr. Pitsuwan said Timor-Leste’s application to join ASEAN was actively studied by the ASEAN member states the country moved forward the economic and other development sectors before joining ASEAN.

“I hope that my visit to the country also contribute to high interest of ASEAN members state, such as ASEAN media and ASEAN countries to know how much progresses the country has reached,” he said.

Timor Leste declared independence from Indonesia in 2002 and has proposed its inclusion as an ASEAN member since 2007. Its formal application, however, was submitted in 2011 under Indonesia’s ASEAN chairmanship.

Indonesia and Timor Leste have begun working on a economic cooperation framework called “the Regional Integrated Economic Approach”. Jose Amelio, Acacio Pinto and Alberico Junior

Timor-Leste to join ASEAN shortly

*Diario Nacional December 3, 2012 language source: Tetun

State Secretary for ASEAN Affairs, Roberto Soares said Timor-Leste would become a new member of ASEAN; therefore Timor-Leste would focus on preparing all the state institutions in the country before joining ASEAN.

"We are ready to join ASEAN and I will not publicize the time to join ASEAN but I guarantee that Timor-Leste will join ASEAN," he said.

Soares said Singapore had agreed Timor-Leste to join ASEAN; therefore the Government would make efforts to make changes to all sectors in the country before joining ASEAN.

"Singapore wants Timor-Leste should be prepared optimally, therefore we should be optimistic that, Timor-Leste will join ASEAN," Soares said.

He added in short time Secretary General of ASEAN will visit the country to look closer at the countries' preparation and policy commitment to join ASEAN.

Translated by:
francisco@tlmdc.org; alberico@tlmdc.org