|
Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesianisland nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia.Its nearest neighbors are Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji. Comprising four reefislands and five true atolls with a gross land area of just 26 squarekilometers (10 sq mi), it is the third-least populated independentcountry in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewerinhabitants. It is also the second-smallest member by population of the UnitedNations with less than 12,000 people.
Tuvalu has westerly gales and heavy rain from November toMarch and tropical temperatures moderated by easterly winds from March toNovember. It has very poor landand the soil is hardly usable for agriculture. There is almost no reliablesupply of drinking water. Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scatteredgroup of nine coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineralresources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primaryeconomic activities. Fewer than 1,000 tourists, on average, visit Tuvaluannually. Job opportunities are scarce and public sector workers make up themajority of those employed. About 15% of the adult male population work asseamen on merchant ships abroad and remittances are a vital source of income,contributing around $4 million in 2006. Thanks to wise investments andconservative withdrawals, this fund grew from an initial $17 million to anestimated value of $77 million in 2006. The TFF contributed nearly $9 milliontowards the government budget in 2006 and is an important cushion for meetingshortfalls in the government's budget. The US Government is also a majorrevenue source for Tuvalu because of payments from a 1988 treaty on fisheries.A minor source of government revenue comes from the sale of stamps and coins.With merchandise exports only a fraction of merchandise imports, continuedreliance must be placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees,remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and income from overseasinvestments. Growing income disparities and the vulnerability of the country toclimatic change are among leading concerns for the nation.
Due to the country's remoteness, tourism does not providemuch income; a hundred tourists are estimated to visit Tuvalu annually. Almostall visitors are government officials, aid workers, non-governmentalorganization officials or consultants. Land is the most valuable asset inTuvalu. With a very small land area and a burgeoning population, possession ofa piece of land is critical, not to mention that Tuvalu is being eaten up bythe Pacific Ocean.
|
