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Guide
Introduction
| |
| Background: |
After seven decades as a
constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in
1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than
any of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a
treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater
political and economic integration but, to date, neither side has
actively sought to implement the accord. |
| Location: |
Eastern Europe, east of
Poland |
| Geographic
coordinates: |
53 00 N, 28 00 E |
| Map
references: |
Commonwealth of Independent
States |
| Area: |
total: 207,600
sq km
land: 207,600 sq km
water: 0 sq km |
| Area
- comparative: |
slightly smaller than Kansas |
| Land
boundaries: |
total: 3,098 km
border countries: Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland
605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km |
| Coastline: |
0 km (landlocked) |
| Maritime
claims: |
none (landlocked) |
| Climate: |
cold winters, cool and moist
summers; transitional between continental and maritime |
| Terrain: |
generally flat and contains
much marshland |
| Elevation
extremes: |
lowest point:
Nyoman River 90 m
highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m |
| Natural
resources: |
forests, peat deposits, small
quantities of oil and natural gas |
| Land
use: |
arable land: 29%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 15%
forests and woodland: 34%
other: 21% (1993 est.) |
| Irrigated
land: |
1,000 sq km (1993 est.) |
| Environment
- current issues: |
soil pollution from pesticide
use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986
nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine |
| Environment
- international agreements: |
party to: Air
Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85,
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental
Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea |
| Geography
- note: |
landlocked |
| Population: |
10,350,194 (July 2001 est.) |
| Age
structure: |
0-14 years:
17.93% (male 947,820; female 908,210)
15-64 years: 68.21% (male 3,428,920; female 3,631,290)
65 years and over: 13.86% (male 473,992; female 959,962)
(2001 est.) |
| Population
growth rate: |
-0.15% (2001 est.) |
| Birth
rate: |
9.57 births/1,000 population
(2001 est.) |
| Death
rate: |
13.97 deaths/1,000 population
(2001 est.) |
| Net
migration rate: |
2.89 migrant(s)/1,000
population (2001 est.) |
| Sex
ratio: |
at birth: 1.05
male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.49 male(s)/female
total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
| Infant
mortality rate: |
14.38 deaths/1,000 live
births (2001 est.) |
| Life
expectancy at birth: |
total population:
68.14 years
male: 62.06 years
female: 74.52 years (2001 est.) |
| Total
fertility rate: |
1.28 children born/woman
(2001 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS
- adult prevalence rate: |
0.28% (1999 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS
- people living with HIV/AIDS: |
14,000 (1999 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS
- deaths: |
400 (1999 est.) |
| Nationality: |
noun:
Belarusian(s)
adjective: Belarusian |
| Ethnic
groups: |
Byelorussian 81.2%, Russian
11.4%, Polish, Ukrainian, and other 7.4% |
| Religions: |
Eastern Orthodox 80%, other
(including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997
est.) |
| Languages: |
Byelorussian, Russian, other |
| Literacy: |
definition: age
15 and over can read and write
total population: 98%
male: 99%
female: 97% (1989 est.) |
| Country
name: |
conventional long form:
Republic of Belarus
conventional short form: Belarus
local long form: Respublika Byelarus'
local short form: none
former: Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet Socialist
Republic |
| Government
type: |
republic |
| Administrative
divisions: |
6 voblastsi (singular -
voblasts') and one municipality* (harady, singular - horad); Brestskaya
(Brest), Homyel'skaya (Homyel'), Horad Minsk*, Hrodzyenskaya (Hrodna),
Mahilyowskaya (Mahilyow), Minskaya, Vitsyebskaya (Vitsyebsk); note -
when using a place name with the adjectival ending 'skaya' the word
voblasts' should be added to the place name
note: voblasti have the administrative center name
following in parentheses |
| Independence: |
25 August 1991 (from Soviet
Union) |
| National
holiday: |
Independence Day, 3 July
(1944); note - 3 July 1944 was the date Minsk was liberated from German
troops, 25 August 1991 was the date of independence from the Soviet
Union |
| Constitution: |
30 March 1994; revised by
national referendum of 24 November 1996 giving the presidency greatly
expanded powers and became effective 27 November 1996 |
| Legal
system: |
based on civil law system |
| Suffrage: |
18 years of age; universal |
| Executive
branch: |
chief of state:
President Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (since 20 July 1994)
head of government: Prime Minister Vladimir YERMOSHIN
(since 18 February 2000); First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey KOBYAKOV
(since 13 March 2000); Deputy Prime Ministers Mikhail DEMCHUK (since 14
July 2000), Mikhail KHORSTOV (since 27 November 2000), Valeriy KOKOREV
(since 23 August 1994), Leonid KOZIK (since 4 February 1997), Gennadiy
NOVITSKIY (since 11 February 1997), Aleksandr POPKOV (since 10 November
1998)
cabinet: Council of Ministers
elections: president elected by popular vote for a
five-year term; first election took place 23 June and 10 July 1994 (next
to be held NA; according to the 1994 constitution, the next election
should have been held in 1999, however LUKASHENKO extended his term to
2001 via the November 1996 referendum); prime minister and deputy prime
ministers appointed by the president
election results: Aleksandr LUKASHENKO elected president;
percent of vote - Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 85%, Vyacheslav KEBICH 15% |
| Legislative
branch: |
bicameral Parliament or
Natsionalnoye Sobranie consists of the Council of the Republic or Soviet
Respubliki (64 seats) and the Chamber of Representatives or Palata
Pretsaviteley (110 seats)
elections: last held October 2000 (next to be held NA)
election results: party affiliation data unavailable; under
present political conditions party designations are meaningless |
| Judicial
branch: |
Supreme Court (judges are
appointed by the president); Constitutional Court (half of the judges
appointed by the president and half appointed by the Chamber of
Representatives) |
| Political
parties and leaders: |
Agrarian Party or AP [Semyon
SHARETSKY, chairman]; Belarusian Communist Party or KPB [Viktor CHIKIN,
chairman]; Belarusian Ecological Green Party (merger of Belarusian
Ecological Party and Green Party of Belarus) [leader NA]; Belarusian
Patriotic Movement (Belarusian Patriotic Party) or BPR [Anatoliy
BARANKEVICH, chairman]; Belarusian Popular Front or BNF [Vintsuk
VYACHORKA]; Belarusian Social-Democrat or SDBP [Nikolay STATKEVICH,
chairman]; Belarusian Social-Democratic Party Hromada [Stanislav
SHUSHKEVICH, chairman]; Belarusian Socialist Party [Vyacheslav KUZNETSOV];
Civic Accord Bloc (United Civic Party) or CAB [Stanislav BOGDANKEVICH,
chairman]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDPB [Sergei GAYDUKEVICH,
chairman]; Party of Communists Belarusian or PKB [Sergei KALYAKIN,
chairman]; Republican Party of Labor and Justice or RPPS [Anatoliy
NETYLKIN, chairman]; Social-Democrat Party of Popular Accord or PPA [Leanid
SECHKA]; Women's Party Nadezhda [Valentina POLEVIKOVA, chairperson] |
| Political
pressure groups and leaders: |
NA |
| International
organization participation: |
CCC, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD,
ECE, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Inmarsat, Intelsat (nonsignatory
user), Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE,
PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO
(observer) |
| Diplomatic
representation in the US: |
chief of mission:
Ambassador Valeriy TSEPAKLO
chancery: 1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20009
telephone: [1] (202) 986-1604
FAX: [1] (202) 986-1805
consulate(s) general: New York |
| Diplomatic
representation from the US: |
chief of mission:
Ambassador Michael KOZAK
embassy: 46 Starovilenskaya St., Minsk 220002
mailing address: use embassy street address
telephone: [375] (17) 210-12-83
FAX: [375] (17) 234-7853 |
| Flag
description: |
red horizontal band (top) and
green horizontal band one-half the width of the red band; a white
vertical stripe on the hoist side bears the Belarusian national ornament
in red |
| Economy
- overview: |
Belarus has seen little
structural reform since 1995, when President LUKASHENKO launched the
country on the path of "market socialism." In keeping with
this policy, LUKASHENKO reimposed administrative controls over prices
and currency exchange rates and expanded the state's right to intervene
in the management of private enterprise. In addition to the burdens
imposed by extremely high inflation, businesses have been subject to
pressure on the part of central and local governments, e.g., arbitrary
changes in regulations, numerous rigorous inspections, and retroactive
application of new business regulations prohibiting practices that had
been legal. Further economic problems are two consecutive bad harvests,
1998-99, and persistent trade deficits. Close relations with Russia,
possibly leading to reunion, color the pattern of economic developments.
For the time being, Belarus remains self-isolated from the West and its
open-market economies. |
| GDP: |
purchasing power parity -
$78.8 billion (2000 est.) |
| GDP
- real growth rate: |
4% (2000 est.) |
| GDP
- per capita: |
purchasing power parity -
$7,500 (2000 est.) |
| GDP
- composition by sector: |
agriculture: 13%
industry: 46%
services: 41% (1999 est.) |
| Population
below poverty line: |
22% (1995 est.) |
| Household
income or consumption by percentage share: |
lowest 10%: 4.9%
highest 10%: 19.4% (1993) |
| Inflation
rate (consumer prices): |
200% (2000 est.) |
| Labor
force: |
4.8 million (2000) |
| Labor
force - by occupation: |
industry and construction
NA%, agriculture and forestry NA%, services NA% |
| Unemployment
rate: |
2.1% officially registered
unemployed (December 2000); large number of underemployed workers |
| Budget: |
revenues: $4
billion
expenditures: $4.1 billion, including capital expenditures
of $180 million (1997 est.) |
| Industries: |
metal-cutting machine tools,
tractors, trucks, earth movers, motorcycles, television sets, chemical
fibers, fertilizer, textiles, radios, refrigerators |
| Industrial
production growth rate: |
5% (2000 est.) |
| Electricity
- production: |
24.911 billion kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- production by source: |
fossil fuel:
99.9%
hydro: 0.1%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1999) |
| Electricity
- consumption: |
27.647 billion kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- exports: |
2.62 billion kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- imports: |
7.1 billion kWh (1999) |
| Agriculture
- products: |
grain, potatoes, vegetables,
sugar beets, flax; beef, milk |
| Exports: |
$7.4 billion (f.o.b., 2000) |
| Exports
- commodities: |
machinery and equipment,
chemicals, metals, textiles, foodstuffs |
| Exports
- partners: |
Russia 66%, Ukraine, Poland,
Germany, Lithuania (1998) |
| Imports: |
$8.3 billion (f.o.b., 2000) |
| Imports
- commodities: |
mineral products, machinery
and equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs |
| Imports
- partners: |
Russia 54%, Ukraine, Germany,
Poland, Lithuania (1998) |
| Debt
- external: |
$1 billion (2000 est.) |
| Economic
aid - recipient: |
$194.3 million (1995) |
| Currency: |
Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR) |
| Exchange
rates: |
Belarusian rubles per US
dollar - 1,180 (yearend 2000), 730,000 (15 December 1999), 139,000 (25
January 1999), 46,080 (second quarter 1998), 25,964 (1997), 15,500
(yearend 1996); note - on 1 January 2000, the national currency was
redenominated at one new ruble to 2,000 old rubles |
| Fiscal
year: |
calendar year |
| Telephones
- main lines in use: |
2.313 million (1997) |
| Telephones
- mobile cellular: |
8,167 (1997) |
| Telephone
system: |
general assessment:
the Ministry of Telecommunications controls all telecommunications
through its carrier (a joint stock company) Beltelcom which is a
monopoly
domestic: local - Minsk has a digital metropolitan network
and a cellular NMT-450 network; waiting lists for telephones are long;
local service outside Minsk is neglected and poor; intercity - Belarus
has a partly developed fiber-optic backbone system presently serving at
least 13 major cities (1998); Belarus's fiber optics form synchronous
digital hierarchy rings through other countries' systems; an inadequate
analog system remains operational
international: Belarus is a member of the Trans-European
Line (TEL), Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line, and has access to
the Trans-Siberia Line (TSL); three fiber-optic segments provide
connectivity to Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine; worldwide service
is available to Belarus through this infrastructure; additional analog
lines to Russia; Intelsat, Eutelsat, and Intersputnik earth stations |
| Radio
broadcast stations: |
AM 28, FM 37, shortwave 11
(1998) |
| Radios: |
3.02 million (1997) |
| Television
broadcast stations: |
47 (plus 27 repeaters) (1995) |
| Televisions: |
2.52 million (1997) |
| Internet
country code: |
.by |
| Internet
Service Providers (ISPs): |
4 (2000) |
| Internet
users: |
10,000 (2000) |
| Railways: |
total: 5,523 km
broad gauge: 5,523 km 1.520-m gauge (875 km electrified)
(2000) |
| Highways: |
total: 63,355 km
paved: 60,567 km (these roads are said to be hard-surfaced,
and include, in addition to conventionally paved roads, some that are
surfaced with gravel or other coarse aggregate, making them trafficable
in all weather)
unpaved: 2,788 km (these roads are made of unstabilized
earth and are difficult to negotiate in wet weather) (1998) |
| Waterways: |
NA km; note - Belarus has
extensive and widely used canal and river systems |
| Pipelines: |
crude oil 1,470 km; refined
products 1,100 km; natural gas 1,980 km (1992) |
| Airports: |
136 (2000 est.) |
| Airports
- with paved runways: |
total: 33
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 19
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
under 914 m: 11 (2000 est.) |
| Airports
- with unpaved runways: |
total: 103
over 3,047 m: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
914 to 1,523 m: 14
under 914 m: 65 (2000 est.) |
| Military
branches: |
Army, Air Force, Air Defense
Force, Interior Ministry Troops, Border Guards |
| Military
manpower - military age: |
18 years of age |
| Military
manpower - availability: |
males age 15-49:
2,729,956 (2001 est.) |
| Military
manpower - fit for military service: |
males age 15-49:
2,138,743 (2001 est.) |
| Military
manpower - reaching military age annually: |
males: 86,396
(2001 est.) |
| Military
expenditures - dollar figure: |
$156 million (FY98) |
| Military
expenditures - percent of GDP: |
1.2% (FY98) |
| Disputes
- international: |
none |
| Illicit
drugs: |
limited cultivation of opium
poppy and cannabis, mostly for the domestic market; transshipment point
for illicit drugs to and via Russia, and to the Baltics and Western
Europe |
|
