Access to THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1994 provided courtesy of
the libraries of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
======================================================
National Trade Data Bank
ITEM ID     : CI WOFACT WO0025
DATE        : Oct 28, 1994
 
AGENCY      : CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
PROGRAM     : WORLD FACTBOOK
TITLE       : World Factbook: Belarus
 
Source key      : CI 
Program key     : CI WOFACT 
Update sched.   : Annually         
Data type       : TEXT 
End year        : 1994
Date of record  : 19941020
Keywords 3      :  
Keywords 3      : | Belarus 
 
 
                                  Belarus
 
 
                                 Geography
 
Location:
     Eastern Europe, between Poland and Russia
Map references:
     Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States - European States, Europe,
     Standard Time Zones of the World
Area:
total area:
     207,600 sq km
land area:
     207,600 sq km
comparative area:
     slightly smaller than Kansas
Land boundaries:
     total 3,098 km, Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 605 km, Russia
     959 km, Ukraine 891 km
Coastline:
     0 km (landlocked)
Maritime claims:
     none; landlocked
International disputes:
     none
Climate:
     cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental
     and maritime
Terrain:
     generally flat and contains much marshland
Natural resources:
     forest land, peat deposits
Land use:
arable land:
     29%
permanent crops:
     1%
meadows and pastures:
     15%
forest and woodland:
     0%
other:
     55%
Irrigated land:
     1,490 sq km (1990)
Environment:
current issues:
     soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of Belarus
     contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at
     Chornobyl'
natural hazards:
     NA
 
 
international agreements:
     party to - Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
     Pollution-Sulphur, Biodiversity, Environmental Modification, Marine
     Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection; signed, but not ratified - Climate
     Change, Law of the Sea
Note:
     landlocked
 
                                  People
 
Population:
     10,404,862 (July 1994 est.)
Population growth rate:
     0.32% (1994 est.)
Birth rate:
     13.12 births/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Death rate:
     11.16 deaths/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Net migration rate:
     1.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1994 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
     18.9 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
     70.88 years
male:
     66.2 years
female:
     75.79 years (1994 est.)
Total fertility rate:
     1.88 children born/woman (1994 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
     Belarusian(s)
adjective:
     Belarusian
Ethnic divisions:
     Byelorussian 77.9%, Russian 13.2%, Polish 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.9%, other
     1.9%
Religions:
     Eastern Orthodox, other
Languages:
     Byelorussian, Russian, other
Literacy:
     age 9-49 can read and write (1979)
total population:
     100%
male:
     100%
female:
     100%
Labor force:
     4.887 million
 
 
by occupation:
     industry and construction 40%, agriculture and forestry 21%, other 39%
     (1992)
 
                                Government
 
Names:
conventional long form:
     Republic of Belarus
conventional short form:
local long form:
     Respublika Byelarus'
local short form:
     none
former:
     Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet Socialist Republic
Digraph:
     BO
Type:
     republic
Capital:
     Minsk
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:
     the administrative centers of the voblastsi are included in
     parentheses
Independence:
     25 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday:
     Independence Day, 27 July (1990)
Constitution:
     adopted 15 March 1994; replaces constitution of April 1978
Legal system:
     based on civil law system
Suffrage:
     18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state:
     President-elect Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (elected 10 July 1994, but not
     yet inaugurated) election held June 24 and 10 July 1994 (next to be
     held NA); Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 80%, Vyacheslav KEBICH 14%
head of government:
     Prime Minister Vyacheslav F. KEBICH (since NA April 1990; offered his
     resignation on the election of LUCHASHENKO), First Deputy Prime
     Minister Mikhail MYASNIKOVICH (since NA 1991)
cabinet:
     Council of Ministers
note:
     first presidential elections took place in June-July 1994
 
 
Legislative branch:
     unicameral
Supreme Soviet:
     elections last held 4 April 1990 (next to be held NA); results -
     Communists 87%; seats - (360 total) number of seats by party NA; note
     - 50 seats are for public bodies; the Communist Party obtained an
     overwhelming majority
Judicial branch:
     Supreme Court
Political parties and leaders:
     Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), Zenon PAZNYAK, chairman; United
     Democratic Party of Belarus (UDPB), Aleksandr DOBROVOLSKIY, chairman;
     Social Democratic Party of Belarus (SDBP), Mikhail TKACHEV, chairman;
     Belarus Workers Union, Mikhail SOBOL, Chairman; Belarus Peasants
     Party; Party of People's Unity, Gennadiy KARPENKO; Movement for
     Democracy, Social Progress, and Justice (DSPS; includes the Communist
     Party), Viktor CHIKIN, chairman
Member of:
     CBSS (observer), CE (guest), CEI (participating), CIS, CSCE, ECE,
     IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, IFC, ILO, IMF, INMARSAT, INTELSAT (nonsignatory
     user), IOC, ITU, NACC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO,
     WMO
Diplomatic representation in US:
chief of mission:
     Ambassador Sergey Nikolayevich MARTYNOV
chancery:
     1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
telephone:
     (202) 986-1604
FAX:
     (202) 986-1805)
US diplomatic representation:
chief of mission:
     (vacant); Charge d'Affaires George KROL
embassy:
     Starovilenskaya #46, Minsk
mailing address:
     use embassy street address
telephone:
     7-0172-34-65-37
Flag:
     three horizontal bands of white (top), red, and white
 
                                  Economy
 
 
Overview:
     Belarus ranks among the most developed of the former Soviet states,
     with a relatively modern - by Soviet standards - and diverse machine
     building sector and a robust agriculture sector. It also serves as a
     transport link for Russian oil exports to the Baltic states and
     Eastern and Western Europe. The breakup of the Soviet Union and its
     command economy has resulted in a sharp economic contraction as
     traditional trade ties have collapsed. At the same time, the
     Belarusian Government has lagged behind most other former Soviet
     states in economic reform; privatization has barely begun; the
     agriculture sector remains highly subsidized; the state retains
     control over many prices; and the system of state orders and
     distribution persists. Meanwhile, the national bank continues to pour
     credits into inefficient enterprises, fueling inflation and weakening
     incentives to improve performance. The government is pinning its hopes
     on reintegration with the Russian economy, but such a path would only
     partially restore traditional trade ties. Until economic reform is
     embraced, Belarus will continue in its economic morass.
National product:
     GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $61 billion (1993 estimate from
     the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and
     published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as
     extrapolated to 1993 using official Belarusian statistics, which are
     very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)
National product real growth rate:
     -9% (1993 est.)
National product per capita:
     $5,890 (1993 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
     30% per month (1993)
Unemployment rate:
     1.4% officially registered unemployed (December 1993); large numbers
     of underemployed workers
Budget:
revenues:
     $NA
expenditures:
     $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA
Exports:
     $710 million to outside of the FSU countries (f.o.b., 1993)
commodities:
     machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs
partners:
     Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria
Imports:
     $743 million from outside the FSU countries (c.i.f., 1993)
commodities:
     fuel, industrial raw materials, textiles, sugar
partners:
     Russia, Ukraine, Poland
External debt:
     $NA
Industrial production:
     growth rate -11% (1993); accounts for about 40% of GDP (1992)
 
 
Electricity:
capacity:
     8,025,000 kW
production:
     37.6 billion kWh
consumption per capita:
     3,626 kWh (1992)
Industries:
     employ about 40% of labor force and produce a wide variety of products
     including (in percent share of total output of former Soviet Union):
     tractors (12%); metal-cutting machine tools (11%); off-highway dump
     trucks up to 110-metric-ton load capacity (100%); wheel-type
     earthmovers for construction and mining (100%); eight-wheel-drive,
     high-flotation trucks with cargo capacity of 25 metric tons for use in
     tundra and roadless areas (100%); equipment for animal husbandry and
     livestock feeding (25%); motorcycles (21.3%); television sets (11%);
     chemical fibers (28%); fertilizer (18%); linen fabric (11%); wool
     fabric (7%); radios; refrigerators; and other consumer goods
Agriculture:
     accounts for almost 25% of GDP and 5.7% of total agricultural output
     of former Soviet Union; employs 21% of the labor force; in 1988
     produced the following (in percent of total Soviet production): grain
     (3.6%), potatoes (12.2%), vegetables (3.0%), meat (6.0%), milk (7.0%);
     net exporter of meat, milk, eggs, flour, potatoes
Illicit drugs:
     illicit cultivator of opium poppy and cannabis; mostly for the
     domestic market; transshipment point for illicit drugs to Western
     Europe
Economic aid:
     $NA
Currency:
     Belarusian rubel
note:
     the government signed a framework agreement with Russia for a monetary
     union in January 1994, but a schedule and mechanism for merging the
     two monetary systems and replacing Belarusian rubels with Russian
     rubles have not been worked out
Exchange rates:
     NA
Fiscal year:
     calendar year
 
                              Communications
 
Railroads:
     5,570 km; does not include industrial lines (1990)
Highways:
total:
     98,200 km
paved:
     66,100 km
unpaved:
     earth 32,100 km (1990)
Inland waterways:
     NA km
 
 
Pipelines:
     crude oil 1,470 km; refined products 1,100 km; natural gas 1,980 km
     (1992)
Ports:
     none; landlocked
Merchant marine:
     claims 5% of former Soviet fleet
Airports:
total:
     124
usable:
     55
with permanent-surface runways:
     31
with runways over 3,659 m:
     1
with runways 2,440-3,659 m:
     28
with runways 1,060-2,439 m:
     20
note:
     a C-130 can land on a 1,060-m airstrip
Telecommunications:
     telephone service in Belarus is inadequate for the purposes of either
     business or the population; total number of telephones 1,849,000 (31
     December 1991); telephone density - 18 for each 100 persons; about 70%
     of the telephones are in homes; over 750,000 applications from
     households for telephones remain unsatisfied (1992); new investment
     centers on international connections and business needs; the new
     BelCel NMT 450 cellular system (a joint venture) is now operating in
     Minsk but progress has been slower in establishing an INTELSAT earth
     station; international traffic still relies on the Moscow
     international gateway switch; broadcast receivers - television
     3,538,000, radio 3,140,000, radio receivers with multiple speaker
     systems for program diffusion 5,615,000
 
                              Defense Forces
 
Branches:
     Army, Air Forces, Air Defense Forces, Security Forces (internal and
     border troops)
Manpower availability:
     males age 15-49 2,520,487; fit for military service 1,981,749; reach
     military age (18) annually 71,922 (1994 est.)
Defense expenditures:
     56.5 billion rubles, NA% of GDP (1993 est.); note - conversion of the
     military budget into US dollars using the current exchange rate could
     produce misleading results
 
 
 
===========================================================================
This section of THE WORLD FACTBOOK 1994 produced by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was derived from the US Dept. of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Division's NATIONAL TRADE DATA BANK (NTDB) CD-ROM,
November, 1994, SuDoc No. C 1.88:994/11/v.1-2 / Presented by Raleigh Muns,
(srcmuns@umslvma.umsl.edu) University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries.