Building Business for Good.

About Sakib
and East Timor Trading

East Timor Trading Group (ETT) has been part of Timor-Leste's journey since independence. Growing alongside the nation, now with over 200 Timorese staff, it is one of the largest non-oil businesses in the country, spanning distribution, retail, and hospitality brands in Timor-Leste – serving 2200 retail outlets nationally.

Now into his third decade of business in Timor-Leste, Sakib Awan is diversifying ETT into real estate and the provision of private sector infrastructure. Under the newly established Property Development Arm, ETT is constructing the country’s most modern international standard business industrial zone comprising 80,000 s/m of retail, commercial, hotel, convention, and industrial space: Discovery Business Industrial Zone (DBIZ), which will provide commercial premises for manufacturers and other productive sectors.

From Darwin to Timor-Leste 

Before his life in Timor-Leste, Sakib Awan held management positions in international hotels across three countries for 15 years. That was followed by running his own successful import-export business in Darwin for 10 years, which focussed on exporting high-quality Australian seafood to 10 countries in southeast and north Asian markets. During this time, he also won a tender to supply food staples to the Australian Army stationed in Timor-Leste.

In 1993, Sakib won the Northern Territory New Exporter Award, and in 1994, the Agriculture Exporter Award and overall Exporter of the Year. This led to him being a finalist for the Australian Exporter Awards in 1993 and 1994 in Canberra. 

In 1996, seeing the potential on Darwin’s doorstep as Chair of the International Business Council in Darwin, Sakib signed an MOU with the Dili Chamber of Commerce. 

In 2002, just as Timor-Leste gained its independence, Sakib seized the opportunity a new country would provide and moved from Darwin to Dili, where he established East Timor Trading Lda.

As the CEO of East Timor Trading, Sakib’s business flourished. In 2003, he opened a duty-free shop at Dili airport, an experience which, in 2004, helped him secure the United Nations commissary concession to run PX Maliana, which supplied duty-free essentials to more than 600 troops stationed at this border outpost. This was followed in 2005 by winning the concession to run PX Obrigado in Dili.

Sakib’s extensive experience in food and beverage, sales and marketing swiftly helped him become a leading figure in Timor-Leste’s business community. As the new nation settled, ETT increased its importation and distribution of multinational brands into the country. 

Growth and commitment to Timor Leste 

In 2007, fulfilling a long-held ambition to open his own hotel, Sakib launched the Discovery Inn and Diya Restaurant. The Discovery Inn was ranked the Number 1 hotel in Timor-Leste on Tripadvisor for 6 consecutive years until its closure in 2021 due to COVID-19.

Continuing his desire to bring international brands to Timor-Leste, Sakib established a bonded warehouse in his Comoro headquarters and now has 20 years of experience owning and operating that facility.

In 2012, ETT brought Gloria Jean’s Coffees™ and Burger King™ franchises to Timor-Leste, and Sakib established the company’s own retail outlets Cheers! Bottleshops and Il Gelato ice cream. Within two years of the first Burger King opening, the company was awarded the regional Burger King Asia-Pacific Operator of the Year award, and in 2018, Burger King™ Timor-Leste held the highest ranking in the Asia-Pacific region for customer satisfaction. ETT’s duty-free shops, which opened in 2003, continued to operate at Dili Airport for a decade.

East Timor Trading Group now 

As a valued partner to the government, Sakib Awan has ensured his company is aligned with the Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011–2030 and aims to help shape policies and laws that support a vibrant private sector, drive economic diversification, sustain growth, and result in increased well-being for the Timorese people.

      Sakib Awan has always prioritized his employees’ well-being by offering wages above the national minimum and providing more comprehensive benefits and amenities than any other company in Timor-Leste. ETT employs more than 200 Timorese staff, and looking ahead, Mr Awan’s goal is to directly and indirectly provide employment for 1% of the country's population. 

Sakib has been a vocal supporter of encouraging new businesses to open in Timor-Leste, and he now aspires to establish a Trade Development Zone within the Discovery Business Industrial Zone. This industrial zone will provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs and substantially lower the barriers to entry for new businesses wishing to set up in Timor-Leste because it means basic infrastructure will be in place and operational from day one. Discovery Business Industrial Zone will be a transformational development in Dili.

Philanthropic activities

Education has always been close to Sakib Awan’s heart. This has led him to establish three preschools in far-flung locations in Timor-Leste through the Discovery Foundation, which is dedicated to building one new preschool each year across all 13 districts in Timor-Leste to provide early education for up to 80 children at each school.

Through ETT, Sakib also provides tertiary Scholarships for entrepreneurial students in Timor-Leste and is negotiating to increase tertiary study opportunities for Timorese youth by partnering with an Australian university.

Furthering such commitments to the youth, Sakib is a Duke of Edinburgh Award Ambassador in Australia.

International experience 

Through his roles as Honorary Consul General, his participation with international organisations, and his experience in selling to a range of markets across the Asian region, Sakib has experience dealing with a variety of international bodies, such as Chambers of Commerce, regional cooperation initiatives such as BIMP-EAGA, the United Nations, all levels of governments, and special economic zones such as Australia’s Trade Development Zones.

Community positions and awards 

• Order of Timor-Leste from then President Dr Jose Ramos-Horta for Ongoing Commitment to and Services in Timor-Leste, 2012

• Gold Cross Medal of Merit from the President of Poland, 2021 

• Honorary Consul General for Poland in Timor-Leste, 2012-2020

• Chairman of the International Business Council within the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Northern Territory of Australia 1996-97

• Honorary Consul of Mexico in the Northern Territory of Australia from 1993-2006.

• Rotary International, Paul Harris Fellow