bolivianos per US dollar - 7.9363 (2004), 7.6592 (2003), 7.17
(2002), 6.6069 (2001), 6.1835 (2000)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
Communications Bolivia
Telephones - main lines in use:
600,100 (2003)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
1,401,500 (2003)
Telephone system:
general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties;
most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile
cellular telephone use expanding rapidly
domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs
digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic
cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded
international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1
Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)
Radios:
5.25 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
48 (1997)
Televisions:
900,000 (1997)
Internet country code:
.bo
Internet hosts:
7,080 (2003)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
9 (2000)
Internet users:
270,000 (2002)
Transportation Bolivia
Railways: total: 3,519 km narrow gauge: 3,519 km 1.000-m gauge (2004)
Highways: total: 60,282 km paved: 3,979 km unpaved: 56,303 km (2002)
Waterways:
10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2004)
Pipelines:
gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,457 km; refined
products 1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2004)
Ports and harbors:
Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the
Bolivia/Brazil border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in
maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay
Merchant marine:
total: 32 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 413,407 GRT/699,901 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 16, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 1
foreign-owned: 11 (Argentina 1, Egypt 2, Eritrea 1, Germany 1, Iran
1, Singapore 2, United Kingdom 1, United States 2) (2005)
Airports:
1,065 (2004 est.)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 16 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 4 1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2004 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 1,049 over 3,047 m: 1 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 60 914 to 1,523 m: 207 under 914 m: 778 (2004 est.)
Military Bolivia
Military branches:
Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Navy (Fuerza Naval; includes Marines),
Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana) (2004)
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; one estimate holds that 40% of the armed forces are under the age of 18, with 50% of those under the age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12 months (2002)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 18–49: 1,923,234 (2005 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 18–49: 1,311,414 (2005 est.)
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 101,101 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$132.2 million (2004)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.6% (2004)
Transnational Issues Bolivia
Disputes - international:
Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama
corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but
not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas
and other commodities
Illicit drugs:
world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru)
with an estimated 28,450 hectares under cultivation in June 2003, a
23% increase from June 2002; intermediate coca products and cocaine
exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to
European and US drug markets; eradication and alternative crop
programs under the MESA administration have been unable to keep pace
with farmers' attempts to increase cultivation; money-laundering
activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders
with Brazil and Paraguay
This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005
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@Bosnia and Herzegovina
Introduction Bosnia and Herzegovina
Background:
Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October
1991, was followed by a declaration of independence from the former
Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic
Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia and
Montenegro - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning
the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form
a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the
number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement
creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed
a peace agreement that brought to a halt three years of interethnic
civil strife (the final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December
1995). The Dayton Agreement retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's
international boundaries and created a joint multi-ethnic and
democratic government. This national government was charged with
conducting foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy. Also recognized
was a second tier of government comprised of two entities