HNL

$NA

Currency (code):

lempira (HNL)

Currency code:

Exchange rates:

lempiras (HNL) per US dollar - 18.9 (2007), 18.895 (2006), 18.92 (2005), 18.206 (2004), 17.345 (2003)

Communications
Honduras

Telephones - main lines in use:

713,600 (2006)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

2.241 million (2006)

Telephone system:

general assessment: inadequate system domestic: beginning in 2003, private sub-operators allowed to provide fixed-lines in order to expand telephone coverage; fixed-line teledensity has increased to about 10 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone service has been increasing rapidly and subscribership in 2006 exceeded 30 per 100 persons international: country code - 504; landing point for both the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) and the MAYA-1 fiber optic submarine cable system that together provide connectivity to South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and the US; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave System

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998)

Radios:

2.45 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:

570,000 (1997)

Internet country code:

.hn

Internet hosts:

13,370 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

8 (2000)

Internet users:

344,100 (2006)

Transportation
Honduras

Airports:

112 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 12 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 3 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 100 1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 914 to 1,523 m: 15 under 914 m: 83 (2007)

Railways:

total: 699 km narrow gauge: 279 km 1.067-m gauge; 420 km 0.914-m gauge (2006)

Roadways:

total: 13,600 km paved: 2,775 km unpaved: 10,825 km (2000)

Waterways:

465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2007)

Merchant marine:

total: 123 by type: bulk carrier 10, cargo 57, chemical tanker 6, container 1, liquefied gas 1, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 25, refrigerated cargo 7, roll on/roll off 4, specialized tanker 1 foreign-owned: 42 (Bangladesh 1, Canada 1, China 3, Egypt 3, Greece 4, Hong Kong 1, Israel 1, Japan 4, South Korea 6, Lebanon 1, Mexico 1, Singapore 12, Taiwan 2, Tanzania 1, Vietnam 1) (2008)

Ports and terminals:

La Ceiba, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela

Military
Honduras

Military branches:

Army, Navy (includes Naval Infantry), Honduran Air Force (Fuerza
Aerea Hondurena, FAH) (2008)

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for voluntary 2 to 3-year military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 1,868,940 females age 16-49: 1,825,770 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 1,359,406 females age 16-49: 1,371,418 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 90,876 female: 87,292 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.6% of GDP (2006 est.)

Transnational Issues
Honduras

Disputes - international:

International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border in 1992 with final settlement by the parties in 2006 after an Organization of American States (OAS) survey and a further ICJ ruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims the Belizean-administered Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize in its constitution, but agreed to a joint ecological park around the cays should Guatemala consent to a maritime corridor in the Caribbean under the OAS-sponsored 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum; memorials and countermemorials were filed by the parties in Nicaragua's 1999 and 2001 proceedings against Honduras and Colombia at the ICJ over the maritime boundary and territorial claims in the western Caribbean Sea - final public hearings are scheduled for 2007

Illicit drugs:

transshipment point for drugs and narcotics; illicit producer of cannabis, cultivated on small plots and used principally for local consumption; corruption is a major problem; some money-laundering activity

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

@Hong Kong

Introduction
Hong Kong

Background:

Occupied by the UK in 1841, Hong Kong was formally ceded by China the following year; various adjacent lands were added later in the 19th century. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and the UK on 19 December 1984, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 1 July 1997. In this agreement, China promised that, under its "one country, two systems" formula, China's socialist economic system would not be imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.

Geography
Hong Kong

Location:

Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China

Geographic coordinates: