POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNTRY FACTSHEETS appoints ministers, the attorney general and central bank governor with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga. Cabinet ministers must be university graduates. Afghanistan Presidential and parliamentary elections, the first in 25 years, were scheduled for June 2004 but were put back to Oct. 2004. The parliamentary elections Da Afganistan Islami Jomhoriyat—Jamhuri-ye Islami-ye were subsequently delayed again and were set to be held in April 2005, but were postponed a further time until Sept. 2005. In Dec. 2005 an elected Afganistan (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) parliament sat for the first time since 1973. Currency Factsheet The afghani (AFN) was introduced in Oct. 2002 with one of the new notes Capital: Kabul worth 1,000 old afghani (AFA). The old afghani had been trading at around Population estimate, 2015: 32.53 m. 46,000 to the US$. GNI per capita, 2014: (PPP$) 1,885 HDI/world rank, 2014: 0.465/171 Defence Internet domain extension: .af In 2013 military expenditure totalled US$2,898 m. (US$93 per capita), representing 13.8% of GDP. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has Civil Aviation had an all-volunteer professional-army. The UN-mandated international There is an international airport at Kabul (Khwaja Rawash Airport). The force, ISAF, assisted the government in the maintenance of security through- national carrier is Ariana Afghan Airlines, which in 2010 operated direct out the country until its mandate expired at the end of 2014. It had been led by flights from Kabul to Amritsar, Baku, Delhi, Dubai, Dushanbe, Frankfurt, NATO since 2003. About 12,900 personnel have been retained to train, advise Islamabad, İstanbul, Jeddah, Kuwait, Mashad, Moscow, Riyadh, Tehran and and assist the Afghan National Security Forces in the context of Operation Urumqi, as well as domestic services. In 2014 it carried 253,040 passengers, Resolute Support. up from 226,266 in 2013. The UN sanctions imposed on 14 Nov. 1999 included the cutting off of Afghanistan’s air links to the outside world. In Economy Jan. 2002 Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed services and Kabul airport was reopened. The airport was heavily bombed during the US campaign and In 2012 agriculture accounted for 25% of GDP, industry 21% and services although it is now functioning with some civilian flights it is still being 54%. used extensively by the military authorities. Afghanistan’s first private airline, Kam Air, was launched in Nov. 2003. Labour The labour force in 2013 was 7,983,000 (5,569,000 in 2003). 49.0% of the Climate population aged 15–64 was economically active in 2013. In the same year 9.2% of the population was unemployed. Afghanistan had 86,000 people The climate is arid, with a big annual range of temperature and very little rain, living in slavery according to the Walk Free Foundation’s 2013 Global apart from the period Jan. to April. Winters are very cold, with considerable Slavery Index. snowfall, which may last the year round on mountain summits. Kabul, Jan. 27 F(À2.8 C), July 76 F (24.4 C). Annual rainfall 1300 (338 mm). Press Constitution and Government Afghanistan had approximately 540 newspapers in 2008 including 16 paid- for dailies. The main dailies were Hewad, Anis and the English language UN sanctions were imposed in 1999 but were withdrawn following the publications Daily Outlook Afghanistan and Kabul Times. collapse of the Taliban regime. Following UN-sponsored talks in Bonn, Germany in Nov. 2001, on 22 Dec. 2001 power was handed over to an Rail Afghan Interim Authority, designed to oversee the restructuring of the coun- try until a second stage of government, the Transitional Authority, could be Historically, Afghanistan has lacked its own railway system although two put into power. This second stage resulted from a Loya Jirga (Grand Council), short stretches of railway extend inside the country from the Uzbek and which convened between 10–16 June 2002. The Loya Jirga established the Turkmen networks. In Feb. 2012 the first major Afghan-run railway opened Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. A constitutional commission was to commercial traffic at a cost of US$170 m., covering 75 km from Hairatan, a established, with UN assistance, to help the Constitutional Loya Jirga prepare town on the border with Uzbekistan, to Mazar i Sharif. It is hoped it will be a new constitution. A draft constitution was produced for public scrutiny in integrated into a wider network being developed as part of a Central Asia Nov. 2003 and was approved by Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga on 4 Jan. 2004. Regional Economic Co-operation programme. The new constitution creates a strong presidential system, providing for a President and two Vice-Presidents, and a bicameral parliament. The consti- Religion tution imposes a limit of two 5-year terms for a president. The lower house is The predominant religion is Islam. According to a study by the Pew Research the 249-member House of the People (Wolesi Jirga), directly elected for a Center entitled Mapping the Global Muslim Population, around 84–89% of 5-year term, and the upper house the 102-member House of Elders (Meshrano the population in 2009 were Sunni Muslims and 10–15% Shias. The Taliban Jirga). The upper house is elected in three divisions. The provincial councils provoked international censure in 2001 by forcing the minority population of elect one third of its members for a 4-year term. The district councils elect the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs to wear yellow identification badges. second third of the members for a 3-year term. The president appoints the remaining third for a 5-year term. At least one woman is elected to the Wolesi Roads Jirga from each of the country’s 32 regions, and half of the president’s appointments to the Meshrano Jirga must be women. The constitution There were 42,150 km of roads in 2006, of which 29.3% were paved. A large reserves 25% of the seats in the Wolesi Jirga for women. The president part of the road network is in a poor state of repair as a result of military action, © Springer Nature Limited 2019 Palgrave Macmillan (ed.), The Statesman's Yearbook Companion, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9 632 Albania but rebuilding is under way. In Jan. 2003 women regained the right to drive Climate after a 10-year ban. 431,600 passenger cars (15 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2007) Mediterranean-type, with rainfall mainly in winter, but thunderstorms are and 153,600 lorries and vans were in use in 2008. frequent and severe in the great heat of the plains in summer. Winters in the highlands can be severe, with much snow. Tirana, Jan. 44 F (6.8 C), July 00 Shipping 75 F (23.9 C). Annual rainfall 54 (1,353 mm). Shkodër, Jan. 39 F (3.9 C), July 77 F (25 C). Annual rainfall 5700 (1,425 mm). There are practically no navigable rivers. A port has been built at Qizil Qala on the Oxus and there are three river ports on the Amu Darya, linked by road to Kabul. The container port at Kheyrabad on the Amu Darya river has rail Constitution and Government connections to Uzbekistan. A new constitution was adopted on 28 Nov. 1998. The supreme legislative body is the single-chamber People’s Assembly of 140 deputies. As from April 2009 all members are elected through proportional representation, for 4-year Social Statistics terms. Where no candidate wins an absolute majority, a run-off election is Based on 2008 estimates: birth rate, 46.5 per 1,000 population; death rate, held. The President is elected by parliament for a 5-year term. 19.6 per 1,000. Infant mortality (2010), 103 per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy at birth, 2013, was 62.2 years for women and 59.7 years for Currency men. Fertility rate, 2008, 6.6 births per woman. In spite of the ongoing conflict in the country, Afghanistan has made significant progress in recent The monetary unit is the lek (ALL), notionally of 100 qindars. In Sept. 1991 years in reducing maternal mortality. The number of deaths per 100,000 live the lek (plural, lekë or leks) was pegged to the ecu at a rate of 30 leks = one births among mothers was reduced from 1,100 in 2000 to 400 in 2013. ecu. In June 1992 it was devalued from 50 to 110 to US$1. Defence Telecommunications Since 1 Jan. 2010 Albania has had an all-volunteer professional army. In 2013 There were 23,424,000 mobile phone subscriptions in 2014 (748.8 per 1,000 defence expenditure totalled US$182 m. (US$61 per capita), representing inhabitants) and 102,000 landline telephone subscriptions (3.3 per 1,000 1.4% of GDP. inhabitants). In 2014, 6.4% of the population were internet users. In March 2012 there were 257,000 Facebook users. Economy Territory and Population In 2009 agriculture accounted for 20.4% of GDP (down from 29.1% in 2000), industry 19.4% (up from 19.0% in 2000) and services 60.2% (up from 51.9% Afghanistan is bounded in the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajik- in 2000). istan, east by China, east and south by Pakistan and west by Iran. The area is 652,230 km2 (251,830 sq. miles). The last census was in 1979. Estimate, 2 Labour 2010, 27.96 m.; density, 42.9 per km . In 2011, 22.9% of the population lived in urban areas. The country is divided into 34 regions (velayat).