GABON (Continued)
Budget: (1979) revenues $1.1 billion, current expenditures $605 million, development expenditures $344 million
Monetary conversion rate: 212.7 Communaute Financiere Africaine francs=US$1 (1979)
Fiscal year: calendar year
COMMUNICATIONS
Railroads: 970 km standard gauge (1.437 m) under construction; 180 km are completed
Highways: 6,947 km total; 459 km paved, 5,517 km gravel and improved and 971 km unimproved
Inland waterways: approximately 1,600 km perennially navigable
Pipelines: crude oil, 270 km
Ports: 2 major (Owendo and Port-Gentil), 3 minor
Civil air: 20 major transport aircraft
Airfields: 121 total, 98 usable; 6 with permanent-surface runways; 2 with runways 2,440-3,659 m, 22 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications: adequate system of open-wire, radio-relay, tropospheric scatter links and radiocommunication stations; 1 Atlantic Ocean satellite station; 7 AM, 2 FM, and 8 TV stations; 11,600 telephones (1.2 per 100 popl.)
DEFENSE FORCES
Military manpower: males 15-49, 158,000; 81,000 fit for military service; 5,000 reach military age (20) annually
Military budget: for fiscal year ending 31 December 1981, $49.5 million; 3.1% of central government budget
THE GAMBIA
_The_Gambia.jpg)
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| (See reference map VII) |
LAND
10,360 km2; 25% uncultivated savanna, 16% swamps, 4% forest parks, 55% upland cultivable areas, built-up areas, and other
Land boundaries: 740 km
WATER
Limits of territorial waters (claimed): 50 nm
Coastline: 80 km
PEOPLE
Population: 635,000 (July 1982), average annual growth rate 2.8%
Nationality: noun—Gambian(s); adjective—Gambian
Ethnic divisions: over 99% Africans (Mandinka 40.8%, Fulani 13.5%, Wolof 12.9%, remainder made up of several smaller groups), fewer than 1% Europeans and Lebanese
Religion: 85% Muslim, 15% animist and Christian
Language: English official; Mandinka and Wolof most widely used vernaculars
Literacy: about 10%
Labor force: approx. 165,000, mostly engaged in subsistence farming; about 15,000 are wage earners (government, trade, services)
Organized labor: 25% to 30% of wage labor force at most
GOVERNMENT
Official name: Republic of The Gambia
Type: republic; independent since February 1965 (The Gambia and Senegal in early 1982 formed a loose confederation named Senegambia, which calls for the integration of their armed forces, economies and monetary systems, and foreign policies)
Capital: Banjul
Political subdivisions: Banjul and five divisions
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