Release of Human Development Report for Timor-Leste

Today the United Nations Development Program office in Timor-Leste launched the latest Human Development Report for Timor. Unfortunately, life for the Timorese is not improving much.

"A United Nations report published today shows that four years of independence have done little to improve the quality of life in East Timor.

The fledgling state still ranks as one of the world's least developed nations.

The UN's Human Development Report says East Timor may be politically free, but its people remain chained by poverty.

Four years after independence, per capita income - at one US dollar a day - is declining.

Life expectancy is just 55 years, 6 per cent of babies die before their first birthday, and at least two thirds of women and half of all men remain illiterate.

Despite all this, the UN says East Timor can still achieve its goal of reducing poverty by one third, largely by raising production in agricultural areas, where most of the population still lives.

And it says hope may lie offshore, with the billions of dollars expected to flow from oil and gas development."

Source: ABC Online (from UNOTIL Public Information Office, Daily Media Review)

Category: Timor-Leste (East Timor)