It will be the East Timor Government's insistence on the rule of law and free market policies that will determine whether East Timor is economically viable. The anaesthetising effects of large dollops of foreign aid will not. The barren, resource poor rock that became Hong Kong and the tiny island of Singapore have shown that. Iceland too has a small population, even smaller than East Timor's and possibly even fewer resources. There are 35 sovereign nations in the world with fewer than 500,000 people and most enjoy living standards in excess of larger nations such as Indonesia.
Figures concerning current taxation revenues in East Timor are misleading.
Bringing government and hence tax collection closer to the source is likely to lead to greater tax compliance and revenues compared with it being handled in far off Jakarta. Territories that are utterly resentful of their colonial overlords usually do not make good taxpayers in any event. So whatever East Timor pays now in tax, it is unlikely to be much greater post independence. East Timor does have some small gold, manganese and copper deposits but currently, only marble is known to be present in commercial quantities. Mountains in the east of the province are believed to be composed almost entirely of high quality marble.