Business environment – Timor-Leste is candid that it remains an early-stage frontier market for private enterprise. The World Bank's 2025 Business Ready (B-READY) assessment gives the country a score of 36.2, below the ASEAN average of around 62, reflecting persistent hurdles in access to finance, land-tenure security, logistics costs and regulatory predictability. Historically, starting a business, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency have been the most challenging areas, though the government has been steadily reforming. Business registration has been centralised through the SERVE one-stop agency, tax declarations can now be filed online, and a new insolvency framework was authorised in 2023.

Corruption and transparency: Here Timor-Leste outperforms expectations. On Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index it scored 44 out of 100 and ranked 73rd of 180 countries, its best result on record and ahead of most developing ASEAN neighbours, including Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. The score has climbed steadily from a low of 22 in 2008, signalling genuine progress in public-sector accountability, supported by an active Anti-Corruption Commission.

The bottom line: Timor-Leste combines a still-maturing regulatory environment with comparatively strong governance credentials and clear political will to improve. In practice, the mechanics of establishing and operating a business require patience and good local guidance, but the direction of reform, and the relative cleanliness of the public sector, is encouraging. Membership of ASEAN and the WTO is expected to accelerate the alignment of Timorese rules and standards with regional norms.