Exports - commodities:
offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, textiles and apparel, gold, ethanol, chemicals, electricity, iron and steel manufactures
Exports - partners:
US 43.86%, Guatemala 13.92%, Honduras 13.22%, Nicaragua 5.65% (2009)
Imports:
$7.98 billion (2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 99 $7.255 billion (2009)
Imports - commodities:
raw materials, consumer goods, capital goods, fuels, foodstuffs, petroleum, electricity
Imports - partners:
US 29.79%, Mexico 10.26%, Guatemala 9.7%, China 4.5%, Honduras 4.4% (2009)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$2.819 billion (31 December 2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 86 $2.985 billion (31 December 2009)
Debt - external:
$11.45 billion (31 December 2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 87 $10.83 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:
$7.522 billion (31 December 2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 82 $7.132 billion (31 December 2009 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:
$273 million (31 December 2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 77 $333 million (31 December 2009 est.)
Exchange rates:
the US dollar became El Salvador's currency in 2001
Communications ::El Salvador
Telephones - main lines in use:
1.099 million (2009) country comparison to the world: 75
Telephones - mobile cellular:
7.566 million (2009) country comparison to the world: 78
Telephone system:
general assessment: multiple mobile-cellular providers are expanding services rapidly and in 2009 teledensity exceeded 100 per 100 persons; growth in fixed-line services has slowed in the face of mobile-cellular competition
domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system
international: country code - 503; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave System (2009)
Broadcast media:
multiple privately-owned national terrestrial television networks, supplemented by cable TV networks that carry international channels; hundreds of commercial radio broadcast stations and 1 government-owned radio broadcast station (2007)
Internet country code:
.sv
Internet hosts:
13,849 (2010) country comparison to the world: 119
Internet users:
746,000 (2009) country comparison to the world: 107
Transportation ::El Salvador
Airports:
65 (2010) country comparison to the world: 75
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 4
over 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2010)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 61
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 13
under 914 m: 47 (2010)
Heliports:
1 (2010)
Railways:
total: 283 km country comparison to the world: 122 narrow gauge: 283 km 0.914-m gauge
note: railways have been inoperable since 2005 because of disuse and high costs that led to a lack of maintenance (2008)
Roadways:
total: 10,886 km country comparison to the world: 134 paved: 2,827 km (includes 327 km of expressways)
unpaved: 8,059 km (2000)
Waterways:
Rio Lempa is partially navigable for small craft (2010)
Ports and terminals:
Acajutla, Puerto Cutuco
Military ::El Salvador
Military branches:
Salvadoran Army (ES), Salvadoran Navy (FNES), Salvadoran Air Force
(Fuerza Aerea Salvadorena, FAS) (2008)
Military service age and obligation:
18 years of age for selective compulsory military service; 16–22 years of age for voluntary male or female service; service obligation - 12 months, with 11 months for officers and NCOs (2009)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16–49: 1,426,142
females age 16–49: 1,590,778 (2010 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16–49: 1,056,532
females age 16–49: 1,356,824 (2010 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 71,292
female: 68,821 (2010 est.)
Military expenditures:
0.6% of GDP (2009) country comparison to the world: 160
Transnational Issues ::El Salvador
Disputes - international:
International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras boundary, in 1992, with final agreement by the parties in 2006 after an Organization of American States (OAS) survey and a further ICJ ruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca advocating Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ decision, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca
Illicit drugs:
transshipment point for cocaine; small amounts of marijuana produced for local consumption; significant use of cocaine
page last updated on January 19, 2011
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@Equatorial Guinea (Africa)
Introduction ::Equatorial Guinea
Background:
Equatorial Guinea gained independence in 1968 after 190 years of Spanish rule. This tiny country, composed of a mainland portion plus five inhabited islands, is one of the smallest on the African continent. President Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO has ruled the country since 1979 when he seized power in a coup. Although nominally a constitutional democracy since 1991, the 1996, 2002, and 2009 presidential elections - as well as the 1999 and 2004 legislative elections - were widely seen as flawed. The president exerts almost total control over the political system and has discouraged political opposition. Equatorial Guinea has experienced rapid economic growth due to the discovery of large offshore oil reserves, and in the last decade has become Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil exporter. Despite the country's economic windfall from oil production