Dominica 2018
Yearbook 2018
Dominica. The year was largely about rebuilding after tropical cyclone Maria, which in September 2017 pulled over Dominica with devastating effects. According to Countryaah.com, Roseau is the capital city of Dominica, a country located in North America. Values equivalent to about 225% of the country’s GDP are estimated to have been lost. In April, the World Bank approved a $ 65 million support package to rebuild houses and get it back on its feet in the country’s crucial agricultural sector. In addition to the banana cultivation, which is the backbone of Dominica’s economy, the trees in the island’s tropical rainforest also blew. In July, the government initiated a campaign to plant new trees.
- According to Abbreviationfinder: DMA is an three letter acronym for Dominica.
Among the international relief efforts were contributions from the United States to the school system and 25 million US dollars from the UNDP (UN Development Program) aimed at the construction of houses that can better withstand future storms with hurricane strength. However, the UN rules also meant that Dominica temporarily lost its voting rights in the General Assembly in February because the country did not pay its fees.
Population
With an annual growth rate equal to ‘ 1 ‰, the population of this tiny state in the Lesser Antilles is now stationary for several years (in 1998 it was 71. 000 residents). It is for the most part made up of Blacks and Mulattos, flanked by a small minority of European origin and a residual group of a few hundred Amerindians.
Economic conditions
During the 1990s the Dominican economy did not undergo substantial changes and GDP, in the period 1990-96, recorded an average annual growth of just 2.3 %. Agriculture has suffered from numerous and recurring natural disasters, including, most recently, Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn, which devastated the island in September 1995, destroying the entire banana crop. In addition to the latter, which represent a third of exports (mostly absorbed by the United Kingdom), the main agricultural productions are made up of citrus fruits and coconut palm, which provides a good quantity of copra. Fishing is fair (in 1997, the construction of a fishing port in Roseau has been completed), while the rich forest heritage is not yet fully used (about 40 % of the land area is covered by a wood mantle), despite recent foreign aid encouraging the strengthening of the pace of exploitation.
During the 1990s, substantial investments were made to increase hydroelectric production and the country was thus able to reduce fuel imports. Finally, tourism contributes to the formation of national income, which in recent years has recorded a significant increase from less than 7,000 arrivals by sea in 1990 to over 230,000 in 1997, services and activities for visitors, remittances from emigrants. For a further development of the tourism sector, the Dominican government has planned the construction on the island, by the end of the nineties, of an international airport to replace the modest current structures.
The trade balance shows a heavy deficit: the United States is the largest partner for imports, followed by the United Kingdom (towards which more than a third of exports go) and some countries close to Dominica and, like this one, members of CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market).
