East Timor fights to tap vast undersea gas field

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH

Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- East Timor is drawing up plans for a deep sea pipeline and petrochemicals plant to tap an estimated $90 billion in disputed underwater oil and gas, company and government officials said, in a rare opportunity for one of Asia's poorest and smallest countries to boost its economy.

It is the latest move in a high-stakes battle with Australia over where the oil and gas in the Greater Sunrise field - containing about 300 million barrels of light oil and 8.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - should be processed.

It also shows that East Timor, which became Southeast Asia's youngest democracy in 2002, is intent on protecting its economic interests after emerging from 500 years of foreign occupation.

"It means a lot for this little country," said Alfredo Pires, secretary of state for natural resources, by telephone from Dili, the Timorese capital. "We are just coming out of independence. We are looking for the creation of possible industries and we really see this as part of an engine of economic growth."

Between the Greater Sunrise field and East Timor lies a deep gash in the ocean floor, the 11,000-foot-deep Timor Trough, which Australia and its largest oil company, Woodside Petroleum Ltd., have argued makes it expensive and maybe even impossible to build a pipeline running north to the tiny state's shore.

But The Associated Press has learned that East Timor has commissioned a survey that suggests the pipeline is feasible. U.S. piping specialist DeepGulf Inc. says that so far its survey indicates that building such a 125-mile pipeline would work, Marc Moszkowski, the company's president, told the AP.

Woodside and a group of companies licensed to develop the Greater Sunrise field want to build a 530-kilometer pipeline running south to Darwin, where ConocoPhillips, of the group members, has built a $5 billion natural gas processing plant.

Australia and Woodside argue that laying a pipeline to the East Timor would undercut profits and expose supplies to political upheaval, while Darwin is stable.

The Greater Sunrise field lies almost entirely in territory claimed by both countries and neither can exploit it without approval from the other side. Under the current licensing agreement, they have until 2013 to sign a development plan.

Gunbattles between rival security forces killed dozens in Dili in 2006 and toppled the government, while rebel troops in February tried to assassinate President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. Australia has around 1,000 peacekeeping forces stationed across the mountainous nation of around a million people.

Still, the venture partners, which also include Royal Dutch/Shell and Osaka Gas, are "prepared to consider the results of the Timor Leste government's independent study," Woodside said in a statement, the country's official name.

Parts of the Timor Sea have been divided up into a complex system of revenue sharing zones with Australia, some based on boundaries drawn up more than three decades ago when the region was a Portuguese colony.

There is no permanent maritime boundary and large portions remain fiercely debated. Lawyers hired by East Timor to draw up a boundary based on international law place the entire Greater Sunrise field in its territory.

But the case cannot be heard by the U.N.'s courts for territorial disputes - the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea - because of legal exclusions obtained by Australia months before East Timor became independent in 2002.

The Australian government is aware of the new pipeline study, said Tracey Winters, a spokeswoman for Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson.

"At the end of the day the decision on the location will be a commercial one," Winters said. Both countries "would like to see this developed as soon as possible."

Paul Cleary, author of the book "Shakedown: Australia's Grab for Timor Oil," accuses Canberra of applying cutthroat negotiating tactics.

"The pressure applied by Australia meant that the new country really didn't stand a fighting chance," wrote Cleary, who also advised the government in Dili on oil and gas policy.

Winters declined to comment on those allegations.

Pires said a new commercial national oil company is being created to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" DeepGulf said it would cost to build the pipeline.

Fifteen companies from five nations have already expressed interest in purchases of oil and liquid natural gas, he added.

To bolster the argument for a pipeline to its coast, East Timor is conducting a joint feasibility study with Malaysia's national oil company, Petronas, for a multibillion-dollar liquid natural gas plant and petrochemical industry due to be released late October, Pires said.

Direct spin-off for the emerging democracy would include a new 100-megawatt power plant that could eliminate national electricity shortages, a petrochemical storage and shipping port and thousands of jobs that could cut into towering unemployment of around 50 percent.

Tax revenue from Greater Sunrise would reach around $3 billion over several decades for the plant's host country, according to estimates, on top of more than $10 billion from sales.

With all sides holding deeply entrenched positions, the fight over the Timor Sea could drag on for years. [http://www.miamiherald.com/business/nation/story/702450.html]

E Timor's wealth: Blessing or Curse?

By Lucy Williamson

BBC News

One day, perhaps, the place where Isabel sits will be a five-star hotel, its private villas looking on the beach, its grand entrance frowning down on the western corner of Dili's beach road.
But for now, six years after independence from Indonesia, there is just Isabel.
Her flimsy bamboo stall shades her from the sun's glare, her tiny piles of tomatoes and garlic are waiting naked in the afternoon heat for a sale.
Six years of independence, and East Timor's capital city is holding its breath.
Two governments, multinational forces numbering thousands, billions of dollars of international money - and yet people like Isabel are still saying life was better under the Indonesians.
"People could afford to buy things then." she said. "Now we just sit here at the stall all day, and perhaps we'll earn a dollar or two."

Economic lifeline
It is ironic, then, that East Timor has been held up in the past few years as an economic role model - ironic, too, that it has done this by sitting on a large and growing pot of oil savings.
Oil and gas - buried under the Timor Sea - are what give East Timor a future.
They underwrote its independence after the Indonesian army left, taking with them the area's economic lifeline and destroying its sparse infrastructure on their way out.

So far East Timor has built up a fund of about $3bn (£1.63bn). It may not sound like a lot but for a population of fewer than a million people, in a country where a budget of $300m has proved hard to spend, it is a fortune.
But this economic blessing also comes with a warning. No country like East Timor has ever managed to use a sudden influx of oil money to create a stable and transparent economy.
The developing world is dotted with examples of what economists called the Resource Curse - too much easy money flooding the system, bringing with it inflation, corruption and the death of any private enterprise.
Can East Timor prove that it can, in fact, be done? That taking oil and gas out of the ground can be good for the host country as well as its customers?

Spending spree
Until now, it has largely avoided the usual tripwires.
East Timor's Petroleum Fund was modelled on Norway's - considered to be perhaps the best in the world - and wrapped in safeguards that prevented governments from frittering away the country's future.
But as the account grows, and the frustration of people like Isabel begins to nag at their leaders' consciences, the money is starting to burn a hole in the government's pocket

This year, for the first time, the government dipped into the fund itself. In addition to withdrawing its usual sustainable amount - basically the interest on the savings - it took a slice of the capital to help fund a 122% increase in the annual budget.
Spending some of East Timor's oil money is not necessarily a bad idea.
Oil and gas revenues currently make up more than 95% of the government's income and there is a pressing need to create a more stable mainstream economy for when those resources run out.
But most of the extra money in this year's budget was to enable the government to subsidise rice and fuel prices - not exactly a contribution to Timor's long-term growth.
And the finance minister herself admits this was more about avoiding potential instability than building a future economy.

Budget race
East Timor's beauty is startling. But you do not have to drive that far south of where Isabel sits at her market stall for the road to peter out into a mountain track.
And try paying for that long and bumpy journey by credit card, or even arranging a taxi after dark, and it is obvious why the five-star hotels are not being built.
East Timor needs roads, electricity and education - and the government knows it.
But red tape and lack of capacity have made it difficult to spend here.
So Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has recently dismantled some of that bureaucracy, issued tight budget deadlines and started a private ministerial spending race - with a bizarre scoring system based on fruit.
Each ministry now lives in fear of this surreal internal ritual. Spend more than 80% of your budget and you are labelled with a durian fruit - the Timorese government equivalent of a gold star. No-one wants to be a banana - the lowest spenders in the cabinet.

The result, critics of the scheme say, is a raft of rushed, badly thought-out projects, many of which seem to have stalled. The tender processes have often been very short - sometimes a matter of weeks. Civil society groups - and the opposition - complain they are being kept in the dark, and ministry insiders say corners are being cut, opening the door to corruption.
All of which has landed a few strongly worded letters on the prime minister's desk - some of them from Timor's international partners, worried at the precedents being set.
But this young country still has a shot at getting it right and showing the world the curse can be avoided, and that is really because it has two things going for it.
One is a strong and vocal civil society and a vibrant opposition. The other is its size.
Ironically, East Timor's lack of development and its small, scattered population allow it to look for what some experts term a "21st Century solution" to development - nimble, decentralised programmes that focus on training and mobile services. So much advice, so much criticism - many ministers sound a little inured to it now. As the deputy finance minister told me recently: "Sometimes we worry too much. If we worry too much about expenditure, then you also have no result in the end." True enough. But worry too little, and the result might also be the same.

Fonte:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7629881.stm

"A gestão do Fundo Petrolífero de Timor-Leste"

Um texto sobre a questão da gestão dos fundos petrolíferos, nomeadamente o de Timor Leste. Aqui, sff!.

Fonte: A. M. de Almeida Serra

Fragile States: ‘Toughest Development Challenge of Our Era’

September 19, 2008—Several decades of conflict and political turmoil turned Central African Republic into a country that needs “everything,” says World Bank economist Eric Bell.
Across the world in Haiti, a recent wave of kidnappings by organized gangs is a reminder of past tensions. “You get excited that things are getting better, then they deteriorate again,” says Peter Holland, a World Bank staffer in Port-au-Prince.
Spiraling violence in Afghanistan has claimed twice as many civilians this year, including NGO workers trying to provide services and humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
One billion people live in countries where the state is breaking down or is overcome by conflict. The countries are often poor or with large pockets of poverty. Their governments are typically unable or unwilling to provide basic services or enough security for people’s lives to improve.
These fragile states are the “toughest development challenge of our era,” World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick observed recently at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Geneva.
“The diseases, outflows of desperate people, criminality, and terrorism that can spawn in the vacuum of fragile states can quickly become global threats,” Zoellick said in a keynote address at the institute’s 6th Global Strategic Review Conference.
“Moreover, just reflect for a moment about the loss to the world—the waste of human energy, creativity, invention, and possibility—of having 1 billion people in destitute circumstances.”

Securing Development
A year ago, Zoellick named fragile states one of the World Bank’s six global challenges. In Geneva, he stressed the need to “secure development” by building security, legitimacy, governance and economy in fragile states to smooth the transition from conflict to peace.
“Only by securing development can we put down roots deep enough to break the cycle of fragility and violence,” Zoellick said.
Zoellick outlined an approach that calls for boosting peace-keeping forces and keeping them in place longer to permit reconstruction, economic recovery, and stability.
Among other priorities, the approach involves channeling aid through local authorities, so weak governments can build expertise, become more able to provide services, and be seen as legitimate by their people.

1 Billion Live in Fragile States
As we mark International Day of Peace on September 21, an estimated 1 billion people live in fragile or conflict-affected countries. That includes 340 million of the world's extreme poor. These countries account for almost two-fifths of all child deaths, and one third of 12-year-olds who did not complete primary school in 2005. Half of all children who do not live to the age of 5 are born in fragile states.

Institution-Building is Critical
“Institution-building is critical,” says Alastair McKechnie, Director of the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group at the World Bank.
“Helping to build a Ministry of Finance that works may not be the most glamorous, visible thing we do, but it’s very important to giving the government both capacity and credibility to manage donor resources and deliver services.”
Over the past decade, the World Bank has increasingly focused on building the capacity of fragile governments to provide basic services and begin economic recovery, says McKechnie.
At the same time, it has stepped up grassroots development projects and used NGOs to get aid quickly to local communities, he says.

State and Peace Building
It’s a challenge made greater by the fact that many fragile states have been relatively neglected by the international community. “They don’t receive much aid per capita,” says McKechnie, “partly because they are perceived to lack the institutional capacity, or effective governance, to use aid to produce results.”
To fill the gap, the Bank created the Post Conflict Fund in 1997 and the LICUS Trust Fund in 2004 to deliver grants quickly to post-conflict or fragile countries while strengthening their institutions. You need flash to view this interactive poll.' + 'Click here to download'; document.write(alternateContent); In April, the Bank merged the two into the State and Peace Building Fund and agreed to allocate US$100 million from the Bank’s administrative budget over the next three years. About 20 countries will receive grants from a first US$33 million allocation this fiscal year, says McKechnie. As of fiscal 2007, which ended in June 2007, Post Conflict and LICUS funds had approved 254 grants ranging from US$25,000 to several million totaling about US$154 million to restart health or social services in the aftermath of war, or to pilot programs that can be scaled up later with other funding.

Getting Aid to the People
The grants have provided seed money to train female teachers, deliver health services, and foster microfinance in Afghanistan. They’ve funded small grants for community development in Sudan’s battle-worn Nuba Mountains region and boosted school feeding programs in the poorest parts of Haiti, where the free meal at school may be the only meal of the day for about 60 percent of children.
“It’s a huge pull factor to get kids into school,” says Holland, who leads a new Education for All expanded school-feeding project in Haiti.
Community-driven development, which lets communities decide for themselves how to use the money, not only produces a high rate of return, says McKechnie, but also strengthens the links between community and the legitimate state.
For example, Afghanistan’s National Solidarity Program, launched five years ago, gives modest grants to fund local priorities such as micro-hydroelectric generators, schools, roads and irrigation. The project has reached 17 million Afghans in all 34 provinces, and has an economic return of close to 20 percent.
“It’s an effective use of money,” says McKechnie, a former World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan. “The money reaches the poor, affects their lives, and gives them a stake in the future. Insurgents have not dared destroy schools that are owned by the community.”
The grants often fund services provided by non-governmental organizations that know the terrain well and can operate in very poor remote or insecure regions, says McKechnie.
But he adds it’s important to build the government’s capacity to govern as quickly as possible, “because what we really want to see is an effective state capable of delivering services, perceived as legitimate by its people, and that’s sustainable for the long term,” he says.

Nuts and Bolts of Governance’
“It’s through being able to deliver services that a government gains credibility and legitimacy with its people. These nuts and bolts of governance that we finance are critical not only to state-building but also to stability in these countries,” says McKechnie.
Capacity is built by governments by actually doing things, by taking accountability for delivering services to their citizens, he says. “If the services are being provided in parallel by NGOs, the UN and others, it often sets back that state building and hollows out public administration as civil servants desert for higher paying jobs in organizations that are providing core public services normally the responsibility of the state.”

Ten Priorities for Fragile States
Bank President Zoellick calls fragile states the toughest development challenge of our era. He's named 10 priorities to meet that challenge.
1.Focus on building legitimacy of the state
2.Provide security
3.Build rule of law and legal order
4.Bolster local and national ownership
5.Ensure economic stability as a foundation for growth and opportunity
6.Pay attention to the political economy
7.Crowd in the private sector
8.Coordinate across institutions and actors
9.Consider the regional context
10.Recognize the long-term commitment

In Central African Republic, where government services eroded over years of upheaval, the Bank brought in procurement and other specialists to train a team of government officials attached to the Prime Minister’s Office to manage grants that have funded much-needed health and social services.
The money has also been used to help the government develop a new economic plan focused on the biggest challenges of the country, namely restoring credible systems of management of public finances and natural resources, as well as broad governance, says Bell, the Lead Economist for CAR.
“Now the government is implementing these reforms with full ownership. They are at an early stage of success but the future holds many promises with this start. Addressing governance concerns is something the country needed very badly after so many years of dilapidation of its institutional structure,” adds Bell.
The goal in CAR and other fragile or conflict-affected countries is to get countries on a path to greater stability and economic growth that creates permanent jobs, adds McKechnie.
“A lot of the problems of violence, whether it’s civil war or criminal violence, is caused by young men without a future. It helps if they can get jobs and see a brighter future.”

Fonte: http://www.worldbank.org/

A Lei do Banco Central em Conselho de Ministros

AUTORIDADE BANCÁRIA E DE PAGAMENTOS

DE TIMOR-LESTE.

Segundo comunicado de hoje, o Conselho de Ministros acaba de discutir a futura Lei Orgânica do Banco Central de Timor-Leste, por transformação neste da actual Autoridade Bancária e de Pagamentos.

É este o ter do comunicado no ponto relativo ao BCTL. Proposta de Lei que aprova a Orgânica da Autoridade Central de Pagamentos
O Conselho de Ministros analisou na sua reunião de hoje a Proposta de Lei Orgânica do Banco Central de Timor-Leste. Um diploma que surge em conformidade com o artigo 143.º da Constituição da República Democrática de Timor-Leste e que voltará a ser posteriormente agendado para aprovação, depois de introduzidas as alterações efectuadas pelo Conselho de Ministros.

O Banco Central de Timor-Leste é a instituição responsável pela estabilidade dos preços e do sistema financeiro e pela contribuição decisiva para o crescimento e desenvolvimento económico e redução das desigualdades sociais de Timor-Leste.".

Fonte:A.M. de Almeida Serra

Dados recentes do ADB/BAD sobre a economia de Timor Leste

O ADB/BAD, o Banco Asiático de Desenvolvimento, acaba de publicar o update do seu Asian Development Outlook. Dele constam dois quadros no seu anexo estatístico com informação sobre as taxas de crescimento do produto (PIB) e da inflação nos países asiáticos, incluindo Timor Leste [para efeitos do ADB incluído no grupo das [pequenas] economias do Pacífico. Veja abaixo [clique sobre os quadros para alargar a imagem].

Desses quadros resulta que as estimativas do Banco para os anos de 2008 e 2009 são de que o PIB cresça, respectivamente, 6,5% e 4,9% (note-se que os vários governos têm estado de acordo em que Timor Leste precisa de crescer a cerca de 7-8%/ano --- pelo menos --- para que as melhorias nas condições de vida sejam minimamente visíveis).

Quanto à inflação, as estimativas iniciais do BAD iam no sentido de que ela se situaria nos 7% em 2008 mas agora já reviu a taxa para 9% ["curiosamente" igual às estimativas conhecidas do FMI].

Para 2009 as estimativas iniciais eram de que a taxa de variação dos preços seria de 6,6% mas agora prevê-se que seja de 7,8% --- de qualquer forma uma redução relativamente à taxa de 2008.

Note-se que em Julho passado a taxa, relativamente a Julho do ano passado, foi de 12,4%, o que nos faz desconfiar significativamente dos valores estimados pelo Banco. O futuro o dirá...

Fonte: A.M. de Almeida Serra

Evolução da Taxa Homóloga de Inflação em Dili

Nota: a taxa homóloga de inflação é a taxa de variação do Índice de Preços no Consumidor que se verifica entre um mês e o mês homólogo do ano anterior.

Fonte: A.M. de Almeida Serra

Doing Business em Timor Leste, posição relativa dos países da Ásia-Pacífico[2009]

"Doing Business" em Timor Leste, posição relativa dos países da Ásia-Pacífico [2009]
Foi recentemente publicado, no âmbito das actividades do Banco Mundial, o relatório Doing business 2009. Aí são abordadas as principais características do ambiente de negócios em vários países do Mundo, incluindo Timor Leste --- que fica "Classificado" em 170º lugar em 181 países estudados. Fraquinho, não?!...Aqui fica uma imagem gráfica da posição relativa dos países da Ásia-Pacífico, em que se inclui Timor Leste.

PALOP e Timor-Leste continuam entre piores do mundo para negócios - Banco Mundial

Lisboa, 11 Set (Lusa) - Países africanos lusófonos como Guiné-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe e Angola continuam entre os piores do mundo para fazer negócios, juntamente com Timor-Leste, revela um estudo divulgado pelo Banco Mundial.
No estudo "Doing Business" ["Fazer Negócios"] 2009, que avalia a facilidade da actividade empresarial em procedimentos como a abertura de empresas ou pagamento de impostos, a única variação significativa entre os países lusófonos foi registada por Cabo Verde, que perdeu seis posições em relação à anterior listagem, surgindo na 143ª posição entre 181 países.
Alterações no enquadramento laboral consideradas prejudiciais às empresas deram o principal contributo para esta descida daquele que era o mais bem posicionado país da África lusófona no ano passado (137º), de acordo com o relatório divulgado quarta-feira nos Estados Unidos.
Registo de propriedade, pagamento de impostos e cumprimento de contratos foram as únicas melhorias para Cabo Verde, entre os dez itens avaliados pelos economistas do Banco Mundial.
Os indicadores considerados avaliam ainda o tempo e custos de início e operação de um negócio, procedimentos relacionados com o comércio internacional, pagamento de impostos e encerramento de actividade.
Não são consideradas áreas como a política macroeconómica, qualidade de infra-estruturas, volatilidade cambial, percepções dos investidores ou crime.
No ano passado, Moçambique foi dos países mais elogiados pelo Banco Mundial, mas este ano perdeu duas posições, para o 141º posto.
Surge, contudo, entre os mais reformadores, com três medidas consideradas bem sucedidas (início de actividade, protecção de investimentos e cumprimento de contratos).
A África sub-saariana é, de longe, a pior região em termos de actividade empresarial e o ímpeto reformador é muito inferior ao registado pelos países da Ásia Central ou da Europa de Leste, sublinha o Banco Mundial.
Gana e Quénia são os dois únicos países do continente que tiveram direito a lugar no grupo dos dez mais reformadores.
Quanto à Guiné-Bissau, manteve-se no antepenúltimo lugar geral (179º), atrás de São Tomé e Príncipe e de Angola, que ganharam ambos uma posição, respectivamente para 176º e 168º. Angola melhorou principalmente no início de actividade (20 posições, para 156º) e nas licenças de construção (nove posições), mas a evolução em quase todos os outros indicadores foi negativa, principalmente na obtenção de crédito (menos cinco posições, 84º geral).
O Banco Mundial não identificou no ano passado qualquer reforma positiva para a actividade empresarial angolana.
Perto de Angola (170ª posição) surge Timor-Leste, sem alterações em relação ao anterior estudo.
O Brasil ganhou uma posição, para o 125º lugar, enquanto Portugal caiu cinco posições, para o 48º posto, atrás da Roménia e à frente da Espanha.
O grupo dos dez melhores países do mundo para negócios manteve-se praticamente sem alterações, com Singapura e Nova Zelândia a liderarem.

Fonte: Lusa

Comércio entre China e países de língua portuguesa deve superar neste ano meta de 2009

Macau, China, 08 Set - A meta de US$ 50 bilhões para o fluxo comercial (exportações e importações) entre a China e os países de língua portuguesa, inicialmente prevista para 2009, deve ser superada já neste ano, resultado de um aumento recorde no primeiro semestre.

Nos seis primeiros meses deste ano, o fluxo comercial entre os oito países de língua portuguesa e a China aumentou 91,5%, para US$ 36,10 bilhões, com destaque para Angola e Brasil.

O aumento representa uma aceleração em relação ao ritmo de crescimento das trocas entre a China e os países lusófonos, então da ordem de 30% ao ano.

Em relação aos seis primeiros meses de 2007, as exportações da China aumentaram 79,9% para US$ 10,74 bilhões, enquanto as importações chinesas chegaram a US$ 25,37 bilhões, um aumento de 96,9%.Até Junho deste ano, o Brasil manteve-se como o principal parceiro comercial da China entre os países lusófonos, com trocas totais de US$ 21,42 bilhões, um aumento de 78,4% face ao período homólogo de 2007.

A China já é o segundo maior parceiro comercial do Brasil, atrás apenas dos Estados Unidos, e o mercado brasileiro é o maior destino dos bens e serviços chineses na América Latina.

A Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimento (APEX) prevê que o comércio entre os dois países vai dobrar, nos próximos cinco anos, com destaque para matérias-primas brasileiras e bens de consumo chineses.

Nos seis primeiros meses deste ano, entretanto, o maior aumento nas trocas comerciais entre a China e os países lusófonos, foi registrado com Angola, um crescimento de 137% para US$ 13,35 bilhões.As exportações da China cresceram 130,3% para US$ 1,17 bilhão, enquanto as importações chinesas de Angola somaram US$ 12,18 bilhões, um aumento de 137,8%, no período em análise.

A exportação angolana para a China é basicamente petróleo, enquanto as exportações chinesas variam entre materiais de construção, máquinas, automóveis e bens de consumo.Entre 2003 e 2006, o fluxo comercial entre a China e os países lusófonos mais que triplicou para um total US$ 34 bilhões.

No ano passado, o aumento das trocas comerciais foi de 46,9% em relação a 2006.O crescimento do fluxo comercial é resultado do aumento da importação e da exportação de bens e serviços, mas também da alta dos preços das matérias-primas.

O aumento deverá superar já este ano a meta de US$ 50 bilhões, inicialmente prevista para 2009, para o fluxo comercial entre a China e os países lusófonos.

Entre os demais países lusófonos, destaca-se no primeiro semestre o aumento das trocas comerciais com São Tomé e Príncipe (97,4%) e Moçambique (35,1%).

Foram principalmente as exportações da China que aumentaram nas trocas com São Tomé (94,3% para US$ 860 mil) e também com Moçambique (59,8% para US$ 105,08 milhões).

Nas trocas com a Guiné-Bissau, as importações da China aumentaram 368,3% para US$ 690 mil.

Portugal manteve-se como o terceiro maior parceiro comercial chinês entre os países lusófonos, com um aumento das exportações da China de 18% e uma queda das importações de 33,3%.No total, as trocas sino-portuguesas atingiram US$ 1,15 bilhão, um aumento de 6,7% no período em análise.

Menos favorável foi a evolução das transações com Cabo Verde (queda de 3,4%) e principalmente com Timor Leste (queda de 43,1%).No caso cabo-verdiano, as trocas não passaram de US$ 7,47 milhões e no timorense dos US$ 2,93 milhões - em ambos os casos praticamente exportações chinesas.

Fonte: www.macauhub.com.mo/

Relatório de Execução Orçamental do 1º semestre de 2008

Relatório de Execução Orçamental do 1º semestre de 2008
Acaba de ser disponibilizado no site do Ministério das Finanças o Relatório de Execução Orçamental referente ao primeiro semestre de 2008. Vale a pena ler em http://www.mof.gov.tl/en/treasury/download/en/Qtr2_2008_Pt.pdf . Note-se que dos 333,4 milhões de USD orçamentados [OGE aprovado em 31DEZ 07] foram efectivamente pagos até ao fim de Junho/08 107,7 milhões de USD, a que corresponde uma taxa de execução "de caixa" de 32,3%.Além disso foram assumidos compromissos no montante de 88,6 milhões USD. Se somarmos as verbas efectivamente pagas com estes compromissos a taxa de execução passa para 58,8%.De realçar que durante o semestre foram pagos [despesa de caixa] 58,6 milhões USD dos 137,6 orçamentados para "bens e serviços", 4,2 milhões dos 60,9 milhões previstos gastar em "capital e desenvolvimento" e 19,6 dos 63,9 milhões orçamentados para pagamento de vários tipos de "transferências".