East Timor oil fund grows

The Timor Leste (East Timor) Oil Fund at the end of the first quarter of the year totalled USD15.7 billion, according to a report on the fund from the first three months of the year. At the beginning of 2013 the Fund totalled US$11.8 billion, and at the end of the year had risen to US$14.9 billion. In 2013, Gross Investment Income generated by the Fund rose by US$865 million. Government spokesman and Minister of State Ágio Pereira said “the Timor Leste Oil Fund is growing well and generating good returns, which boost its sustainability. Our strategy is to use the Oil Fund to develop critical sectors and supporting the economic diversification of our nation is a positive strategy.

Japan’s Nitura postpones textile complex in Mozambique

Japanese company Nitura announced the postponement of construction of a textile complex, with units for spinning, weaving and clothes manufacturing in the city of Nacala-Porto, in Mozambique’s Nampula province, according to Friday’s edition of Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias. The newspaper said that “the postponement is, apparently, related to a lack of security in some areas of Sofala province.” The project also included opening a cotton-based raw materials production centre, in Malema district, on a 4,000-hectare plot, a seed-cotton processing factory and a textile complex in Nacala-Porto. Nitura planned to produce an average of 16,000 tons of cotton per harvest for manufacturing a variety of clothes that would then be sold on the European and American markets.