Background

In October 2004, the Timor-Leste government's Ministry of Planning and Finance released a Public Consultation Discussion Paper on Establishing a Petroleum Fund for Timor Leste  (Available also in Tetum or Portuguese). They also announced a public consultation process on the ideas discussed in the paper.

On 16 November 2004, a half-day public meeting was held at CAVR in Dili, with presentations by the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, and the General Manager of the Banking and Payments Authority. Link to the slides from the presentation in English or Portuguese.

People were invited to make written submissions to the Petroleum Fund Steering Committee by the end of November. La'o Hamutuk made a submission, as did several other organizations.

La'o Hamutuk Submission   (printable English PDF)   (Printable Portuguese PDF)

La'o Hamutuk's submission refers to the following documents, in addition to the first two other submissions listed below:

From La'o Hamutuk

• Can Timor-Leste Avoid the Resource Curse?

• The Case for Saving Sunrise

• Report from the Timor-Leste exchange with Nigeria

• Submission regarding Petroleum Regime for Timor-Leste

From the Government of RDTL

• Constitution of RDTL

• RDTL Budget for 2004-2005

• UNTAET Regulation 2001/30 establishing the Banking and Payments Authority

• Banking and Payments Authority Annual Report 2003-4    Portuguese

• RDTL Public Law 2004-7 on the Office of the Provedor

From the Government of Norway and Norges Bank

• State budget for 2005

• Ethical Guidelines for the Government Petroleum Fund issued 19 November 2004 (Ministry of Finance, Norway)

• Government Petroleum Fund Annual Report for 2003 from Norges Bank

From advisors to and the government of São Tomé e Príncipe

• São Tomé e Príncipe Petroleum Revenue law approved by Parliament in November 2004 (Portuguese)
  Unofficial English translation of STP Petroleum Revenue Law

• Explanatory Notes on Oil Revenue Management Law

• São Tomé project at Center for Global and Sustainable Development at Earth Institute, Columbia University

• Boletím de Informação Popular used in São Tomé National Forum (Portuguese)
  English translation of draft STP Popular Information Bulletin

Regarding petroleum supply and prices

• Short-Term Energy Outlook – November 2004 published by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA)

• International Energy Outlook 2004 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

• Additional information on world oil price trends from http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/chron.html

Regarding the stability of the United States dollar

• Going Down by John Cassidy in the New Yorker magazine, 6 December 2004

• Dollar's Fall Tests Nerve of Asia's Central Bankers, New York Times, 4 December 2004

• As Dollar Drops, China's RMB Could Emerge as Currency of Empire, Pacific News Service, 3 December 2004

Submissions by other organizations

• Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights, USA (memo to La'o Hamutuk)

• Martin E. Sandbu, Ph.D. of the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA

• Global Witness and CAFOD, UK (114KB)

• LABEH, CIITT, and NetEJ, Timor-Leste

• World Bank

Draft law introduced and passed

On 31 January 2005, the Ministry of Planning and Finance released a draft law on the Petroleum Fund. A series of public consultations were held, and submissions were accepted through 1 March.

Follow this link for details and documents relating to the Petroleum Fund Draft Act, discussion and passage.

In February and March 2005, La'o Hamutuk submitted comments to two international conferences on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative: in Paris organized by the World Bank, and in London organized by the British Government.   The Prime Minister addressed the London conference.

The draft law was revised and approved by the Council of Ministers on 12 April 2005.

In June 2005, it was considered in Parliament. Parliamentary Commission C invited testimony from several NGOs.

Parliament made a few modifications, and passed the Petroleum Fund Act on 20 June 2005. It was signed by the President and became law shortly thereafter.  Follow this link for information on the Fund's operation.

All pages linked to by this page are English unless otherwise specified. Many of the documents are in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF) and may require Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download) to be read.

The East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis
1a Rua Mozambique, Farol, Dili, Timor Lorosa’e
P.O. Box 340, Dili, East Timor
Tel: +670-3325013 or +670-7234330
email: laohamutuk@easttimor.minihub.org
Web: http://www.laohamutuk.org