🇹🇱 Timor-Leste

East Timor (Timor-Leste) is Asia's youngest country, gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a brutal 24-year occupation that killed an estimated 100,000-180,000 people. The population of 1.3 million has a GDP of about $3 billion. Oil and gas from the Timor Sea have funded a sovereign wealth fund (the Petroleum Fund) worth about $18 billion — one of the highest per-capita sovereign wealth funds in the world. Dili, the capital, still has a frontier feel. The country is predominantly Catholic, the only majority-Catholic nation in Southeast Asia besides the Philippines.

Oil and gas revenue accounts for about 90% of government income, but production from existing fields is declining rapidly. The Greater Sunrise gas field, shared with Australia, has been a decades-long negotiation. Non-oil GDP is tiny — coffee (mostly organic) is the main non-oil export. Agriculture employs about 70% of the population. The country is trying to develop tourism, but infrastructure is minimal.

East Timor's Petroleum Fund is modeled on Norway's sovereign wealth fund and has been remarkably well-managed for such a young, poor country. The Ataúro Island reef system has the highest recorded fish biodiversity of any single site on earth — 643 species counted in a single dive survey. East Timor is one of only two predominantly Catholic countries in Asia.

East Timor's oil wealth has provided a buffer, but the clock is ticking as production declines. The Greater Sunrise deal and economic diversification will determine whether the country thrives or struggles in the post-oil era.