by Piyaporn Hawiset
September 2, 1999
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) would in principle be prepared to help rebuild East Timor when it becomes independent, but the Indonesian-ruled territory will have to meet membership requirements first, officials said on September 1, 1999.
The situation in East Timor strikes a parallel with that of Cambodia in the early 1990s, which also needed ADB emergency loans to repair infrastructure wrecked by decades of civil war.
"Basically, it's jumping the gun a little because there are obvious things that it will have to go through first," an ADB official said when asked about the bank's possible role in rehabilitating East Timor.
The first requirement under the ADB charter is for a country to be a member of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), a United Nations agency. Only after gaining ESCAP membership can it qualify to join the 57-nation bank based in Manila, the official told Reuters. The two-stage process could take at least several months.
"If the application went smoothly, we could move in to help them (East Timor) repair the basic infrastructure needed to get the country going," an ADB spokesman said.
East Timor voted in a referendum on August 30 on whether to stay within or break away from Indonesia. Results of the vote, as widely predicted, was for independence.
What the ADB did for Cambodia could be a model for East Timor. In 1992, after the Cambodian civil war ended, ADB extended Phnom Penh an initial special rehabilitation assistance loan of $67.7 million to repair severely damaged infrastructure such as power and water supplies, irrigation, sanitation and schools to help that country back to its feet. Up to December 1998, the ADB has extended $287.7 million in loans to Cambodia.
"Basically, when a country has been through a civil war, it needs its roads repaired, its water and power supplies restored, and irrigation if that's been affected," the spokesman said.
"People need to be able to move around, to eat, to have electricity...It could also include basic health services."
The country was completely destroyed as Indonesian troops left after the arrival of United Nations peacekeeping forces in the middle of September. A major reconstruction program will be required to rebuild East Timor's infrastructure--roads, bridges, power supply, telephones, infrastructure... everything--plus houses, buildings hospitals and churches. The whole country was destroyed and much of it razed to the ground.