Revision 233185 of "AlbaniA" on enwiki

AlbaniaHistory



AlbaniaGeography



AlbaniaPeople



AlbaniaGovernment



AlbaniaEconomy



AlbaniaCommunications



AlbaniaTransportations



AlbaniaMilitary



AlbaniaTransnationalIssues





                                       Communications



 



Telephones - main lines in use: 42,000 (1995) 



Telephones - mobile cellular: 3,100 (1999) 



Telephone system: 

domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist

government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used it to build fences 

international: inadequate; international traffic carried by microwave radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece 



Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 2 (1999) 



Radios: 810,000 (1997) 



Television broadcast stations: 13 (1999) 



Televisions: 405,000 (1997) 



Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (1999) 



                                        Transportation



 



Railways: 

total: 670 km 

standard gauge: 670 km 1.435-m gauge (1996) 



Highways: 

total: 18,000 km 

paved: 5,400 km 

unpaved: 12,600 km (1998 est.) 



Waterways: 43 km plus Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990) 



Pipelines: crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1991) 



Ports and harbors: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore 



Merchant marine: 

total: 6 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 10,907 GRT/16,101 DWT 

ships by type: cargo 6 (1999 est.) 



Airports: 10 (1999 est.) 



Airports - with paved runways: 

total: 3 

2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (1999 est.) 



Airports - with unpaved runways: 

total: 7 

over 3,047 m: 1 

1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 

914 to 1,523 m: 2 

under 914 m: 3 (1999 est.) 



Heliports: 1 (1999 est.) 



                                          Military



 



Military branches: Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior Ministry Troops, Border Guards 



Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age 



Military manpower - availability: 

males age 15-49: 856,820 (2000 est.) 



Military manpower - fit for military service: 

males age 15-49: 701,194 (2000 est.) 



Military manpower - reaching military age annually: 

males: 35,508 (2000 est.) 



Military expenditures - dollar figure: $42 million (FY99) 



Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.5% (FY99) 



                                      Transnational Issues







Disputes - international: the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians outside of its borders but

has downplayed them to further its primary foreign policy goal of regional cooperation; Albanian majority in Kosovo seeks

independence from Serbian Republic; Albanians in The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia claim discrimination in education,

access to public-sector jobs, and representation in government 



Illicit drugs: increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route

and - to a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium and cannabis production;

ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and rapidly expanding in Europe