rate: 9% (2000 est.)
Electricity - production: 4.738 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 3% hydro: 97% other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption: 5.378 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 100 million kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 1.072 billion kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets, grapes; meat, dairy products
Exports: $306 million (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Exports - commodities: textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco
Exports - partners: Italy 70%, Greece 12%, Germany 6%, The Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2%, Austria 1% (2001)
Imports: $1.1 billion (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals
Imports - partners: Italy 32%, Greece 26%, Turkey 6%, Germany 6%,
Bulgaria 2% (2001)
Debt - external: $1 billion (2000)
Economic aid - recipient: $315 million (top donors were Italy, EU,
Germany) (2000 est.)
Currency: lek (ALL)
Currency code: ALL
Exchange rates: leke per US dollar - 140.16 (November 2001), 143.71 (2000) 137.69 (1999), 150.63 (1998), 148.93 (1997); note - leke is the plural of lek
Fiscal year: calendar year
Communications Albania
Telephones - main lines in use: 120,000 (2001)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 250,000 (2001)
Telephone system: general assessment: Albania has the poorest telephone service in Europe with fewer than two telephones per 100 inhabitants; it is doubtful that every village has telephone service domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for every village; in 1992, following the fall of the Communist government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used it to build fences international: inadequate; international traffic carried by microwave radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece
Radio broadcast stations: AM 13, FM 4, shortwave 2 (2001)
Radios: 1 million (2001)
Television broadcast stations: 3 (plus 58 repeaters) (2001)
Televisions: 700,000 (2001)
Internet country code: .al
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 10 (2001)
Internet users: 12,000 (2001)
Transportation Albania
Railways: total: 447 km standard gauge: 447 km 1.435-m gauge (2001 est.)
Highways: total: 18,000 km paved: 5,400 km unpaved: 12,600 km (1998 est.)
Waterways: 43 km note: includes Albanian sections of Lake Scutari,
Lake Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990)
Pipelines: crude oil 196 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1996)
Ports and harbors: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore
Merchant marine: total: 7 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 13,423 GRT/20,837 DWT ships by type: cargo 7, includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Croatia 1, Honduras 1 (2002 est.)
Airports: 11 (2001)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2001)
Airports - with unpaved runways: 4 (2001) 914 to 1,523 m: Heliports: 1 (2001)
Military Albania
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior
Ministry Troops, Border Guards
Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age (2002 est.)
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 888,086 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 727,406 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 35,792 (2002 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $56.5 million (FY02)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.49% (FY02)
Transnational Issues Albania
Disputes - international: the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians outside of its borders in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia and in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia while continuing to seek regional cooperation; many Albanians illegally transit neighboring states to emigrate to western Europe
Illicit drugs: increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium and growing cannabis production; ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and rapidly expanding in Europe
This page was last updated on 1 January 2002
========================================================================
Armenia
Introduction
Armenia
Background: An Armenian Apostolic Christian country, Armenia was incorporated into Russia in 1828 and the USSR in 1920. Armenian leaders remain preoccupied by the long conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily Armenian-populated region, assigned to Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s by Moscow. Armenia and Azerbaijan began fighting over the area in 1988; the struggle escalated after both countries attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By May 1994, when a cease-fire took hold, Armenian forces held not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also a significant portion of Azerbaijan proper. The economies of both sides have been hurt by their inability to make substantial progress toward a peaceful resolution.
Geography Armenia
Location: Southwestern Asia, east of Turkey
Geographic coordinates: 40 00 N, 45 00 E
Map references: Asia
Area: total: 29,800 sq km water: 1,400 sq km land: 28,400 sq km
Area
