Gusmao Calls on Indonesians to Invest in E Timor

JAKARTA, May 1 Asia Pulse/Antara - East Timor leader Xanana Gusmao has called on Indonesian businessmen to invest in his homeland which he said was having difficulty finding financial support to develop.

"(Our sources) are our people and willingness," Gusmao said at the Borobudur hotel here Friday when asked by journalists whether East Timor had enough financial sources to carry out development.

Gusmao spoke to the press after attending a luncheon with Indonesian businessmen. He was making one-day visit to Jakarta, his second since East Timor's separation from Indonesia.

Prior to the luncheon, Gusmao, who is president of the East Timor National Resistance Council (CNRT), met President Wahid at the presidential Bina Graha office here.

He had flown into Jakarta aboard a UN aircraft, accompanied by CNRT vice president Jose Ramos Horta and several UNTAET (UN Transitional Administration for East Timor) officials.

In his call on Indonesian businessmen to invest in East Timor, Gusmao did not specify in which fields they could operate.

"I just invited them to come to East Timor and look around. Then, they can decide for themselves in which sector they want to invest," he said.

Asked whether the security of Indonesian investments could be guaranteed, he replied, "That's no problem."

On the Timor Gap, Gusmao said East Timor was expecting eventually to obtain its due rights over the oil-rich area. He said a special committee in East Timor was now working on it.

When East Timor was still an Indonessian province in 1989, Indonesia and Australia concluded an accord to develop the Timor Gap side by side and for this purpose divided the area into three zones.

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