East Timor left to flounder in poverty and unemployment

The appalling conditions facing East Timorese were summed up in the statistics published by the UN Development Program (UNDP) earlier this year in a report entitled “The Path out of Poverty”. The title of the document tends to suggest there might be some cause for optimism—in the future at least. Its contents, however, demonstrate that, for all the euphoria about the East Timorese independence in 2002, social conditions if anything are getting worse.

According to the report, East Timor ranks below all its neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, on a range of social and economic statistics. Several indices, including life expectancy and access to electricity in rural areas, have in fact worsened, as compared to the previous UNDP report in 2002.

On the most basic measure, annual per capita GDP in East Timor was just $US370 in 2004—or $US1 a day. In rural areas, the figure was even lower—just $150. By comparison, per capita GDP was $3,700 in Indonesia, $3,000 in Vietnam and $2,100 in Cambodia. Of the bottom 30 entities in the world, only four—East Timor, Afghanistan, Gaza, and the West Bank—are not in Africa.

Moreover, annual per capita GDP has actually fallen from a “high” of $460 in 2001, when a large number of UN and other international personnel created an artificial “UN economy”, particularly in Dili. The current figure of $370 is lower than during the Indonesian administration of the province in 1999.

Based on income figures, 40 percent of people live below the official poverty line of 55 US cents a day. In rural areas, the proportion is closer to 50 percent. The “National Vision to 2020” proposes reducing poverty to 30 percent by 2015, but without any significant international assistance even this very modest target is unlikely to be reached.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006/etim-s28.shtml