| 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 |
|
