Timor Plaza

Timor Plaza
Timor Plaza in 2023
Coordinates8°33′S 125°32′E / 8.55°S 125.54°E / -8.55; 125.54
Address
  • Avenida Presidente Nicolau Lobato, Bebonuk
  • Dili, Timor-Leste
Opening dateOctober 2011
WebsiteTimor Plaza

Timor Plaza is a shopping centre in Dili, capital city of Timor-Leste. Part of the Dili Central compound,[1] it is located on Avenida Presidente Nicolau Lobato in Bebonuk, one of the sucos of Dili.[2][3] As of 2021, the compound included six office buildings, a hotel, supermarkets, restaurants and a cinema.[4]

History

The centre was the first modern shopping mall in Timor-Leste.[1][5][6] It was built by Dili Development Company Lda. (DDC), a member of the Jape Group of Companies.[1][3]

DDC was established in 2009.[1] Construction of the shopping centre had begun by mid-2010; at that time, the first phase of the whole 5 ha (12 acres) Dili Central development was expected to cost US$10 million, as part of a US$30 million total.[7]

The family-owned Jape Group had been founded in Darwin, Australia, in 1976.[8] Its founder, Jape Kong Su,[8] was a Balibo-born East Timorese of Chinese descent,[9] who had fled from the former Portuguese Timor during its invasion by Indonesia the previous year.[10]

In 1999, Jape returned to his Timorese homeland to assist in the process of national reconstruction.[11] Through his companies, he became the country's biggest private sector investor, with the companies' Timor Plaza project being a substantial privately funded landmark in the rebuilding of Dili.[12][13]

Realisation of the project generated controversy. The Jape family was accused of evicting many families from the project site, and thus prompting tensions among developers, local landowners, and a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), Matadalan ba Rai-Haburas Foundation, which assisted the evicted families.[14]: 492  Another local NGO, La'o Hamutuk, claimed that the Jape family's projects had not only displaced "local people and vendors", but also violated environmental laws.[4]: 18  Eventually, by early 2013, the developer compensated 192 families, most by agreement, but a few only after they had taken their cases to court, and obtained a determination that their land had been illegally expropriated.[15]

Meanwhile, Timor Plaza's first phase opened in October 2011.[16] Six months later, in March 2012, an article in The Sydney Morning Herald commented that the shopping centre was:

"... a multimillion-dollar statement of faith that [Timor-Leste's] future will be more affluent than the present and more stable than the past."[5]

The article went on to quote Timor Plaza's sales and marketing manager as saying that the centre's market was "the A and B demographic". However, it then reported that the centre's interior had been "deserted", and opined that "... signs of an affluent middle class are scarce ..." both in the centre and in the streets.[5] By contrast, an article published by The Myanmar Times in December 2014 described the centre much more positively as "... a spiffy new shopping mall that would not be out of place in Singapore ..."[17]

At a ceremony held in December 2023 that included a store blessing and local music, the President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, inaugurated Jack's of Timor-Leste, the first department store to open at Timor Plaza, and in the country generally. The store, located within the CBD 10 building at Dili Central, is part of a chain operated by Jack's Retail, a Fiji-based company with around 50 outlets in Fiji and others in Papua New Guinea.[18][19][20]

Description

Timor Plaza is four storeys high.[7] As of 2021, the Dili Central compound, of which the shopping centre is a part, included six office buildings, a hotel, supermarkets, restaurants and a cinema.[4] That year, La'o Hamutuk claimed that the compound:

"... has lured shoppers and offices away from commercial areas, hurting local businesses.

Most banks and phone companies have moved there, as well as some state agencies."[4]

Earlier, an article in Southeast Asian Affairs, an annual review published by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, described the Timor Plaza of 2014 as "... a bustling shopping mall with fancy establishments like cafés, restaurants, fashion stores, bookshops, a cinema and even an Apple Macintosh outpost."[21] The article also observed that the centre has upmarket office facilities occupied by many international tenants.[21]

The more downbeat assessment of The Sydney Morning Herald, in its 2012 article, was that the centre had bleached interiors, glass-sided elevators and fluorescent lights that made it "... the cousin of every shopping mall in almost every city in the world."[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Timor-Leste Investment Guide (PDF) (Report). Lisbon: EY (Ernst & Young). 2017. p. 36. EYG no. 03064-172Gbl. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  2. ^ "Contact". Embassy of India, Dili, Timor-Leste. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  3. ^ a b "International directory: Timor Plaza at Dili Central". Discover Darwin. City of Darwin, Australia. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d Gomes, Eliziaria; Scheiner, Charles (October 2011), Chinese involvement in Timor-Leste: myths and facts For Miserior Partners (PDF), Dili: La'o Hamutuk: Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, p. 18, retrieved 3 November 2025
  5. ^ a b c d Bachelard, Michael (9 March 2012). "'Impoverished country with a very large bank account'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  6. ^ "Timor Plaza (Dili) History". TravelSetu. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  7. ^ a b Cleary, Paul (26 June 2010). "Timor's poor in peril amid plenty". The Australian. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Darwin Local Stories: Land of Opportunity". Discover Darwin. City of Darwin. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  9. ^ Sousa, Camilio de (6 October 2022). "Jape Kong Su laid to rest in Hera- Dili". Tatoli. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  10. ^ Smith, Camden (18 November 2024). "NT rich list: How 12 wealthy families made fortunes". NT News. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  11. ^ "Vote of Condolence on Jape Kong Su's Death". Government of Timor-Leste (Press release). Dili. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  12. ^ "Jape Kong Su the First Serious Investor in East Timor". Tempo Semenal. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  13. ^ Skulley, Mark (4 August 2016). "LONGREAD: Timor-Leste, Australia's northern exposure". Bluenotes. ANZ Bank. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  14. ^ Soares, Laurentina ‘Mica’ Barreto (2021). "Overseas Chinese, Soft Power and China's People-to-People Diplomacy in Timor-Leste". In Smith, Graeme; Wesley-Smith, Terence (eds.). The China Alternative: Changing Regional Order in the Pacific Islands. Canberra: ANU Press. pp. 473–498. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1h45mkn.20. ISBN 9781760464165.
  15. ^ Sexton, Pamela (23 March 2013). "Land and Housing Rights in Timor-Leste". East Timor Law & Justice Bulletin. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  16. ^ "About". Timor Plaza. Retrieved 2 November 2025.
  17. ^ Mitton, Roger (15–21 December 2014). "And now for somewhere completely different ..." (PDF). The Myanmar Times. p. 23. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  18. ^ Sousa, Camilio de (14 December 2023). "PR Horta - Tony inaugurated the Jack's store at CBD10 Timor Plaza". Tatoli. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  19. ^ "First Department Store Opens in Timor-Leste". Jornal Independente, Timor-Leste. 18 December 2023. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  20. ^ Nasokia, Waisea (19 April 2024). "Jack's Group to unveil four new projects". Fiji Sun. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
  21. ^ a b Feijo, Rui Graça (2015). "TIMOR-LESTE: The Two Sides of Success". Southeast Asian Affairs. ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute: 371–383, at 371. ISSN 0377-5437. Retrieved 3 November 2025.

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