KZT

Exchange rates:

tenge (KZT) per US dollar - 122.55 (2007), 126.09 (2006), 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004), 149.58 (2003)

Communications
Kazakhstan

Telephones - main lines in use:

3.237 million (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

12.588 million (2007)

Telephone system:

general assessment: inherited an outdated telecommunications network from the Soviet era requiring modernization domestic: intercity by landline and microwave radio relay; number of fixed-line connections is gradually increasing and fixed-line teledensity is about 20 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular usage is increasing rapidly and subscriptions now exceed 80 per 100 persons international: country code - 7; international traffic with other former Soviet republics and China carried by landline and microwave radio relay and with other countries by satellite and by the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic cable; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (2007)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 60, FM 17, shortwave 9 (1998)

Radios:

6.47 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

12 (plus 9 repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:

3.88 million (1997)

Internet country code:

.kz

Internet hosts:

36,417 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

10 (with their own international channels) (2001)

Internet users:

1.901 million (2006)

Transportation
Kazakhstan

Airports:

97 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 65 over 3,047 m: 9 2,438 to 3,047 m: 27 1,524 to 2,437 m: 17 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 8 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 32 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 6 1,524 to 2,437 m: 6 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 12 (2007)

Heliports:

5 (2007)

Pipelines:

condensate 658 km; gas 11,082 km; oil 10,376 km; refined products 1,095 km (2007)

Railways:

total: 13,700 km broad gauge: 13,700 km 1.520-m gauge (3,700 km electrified) (2006)

Roadways:

total: 91,563 km paved: 83,717 km unpaved: 7,846 km (2006)

Waterways:

4,000 km (on the Ertis ((Irtysh)) River (80%) and Syr Darya ((Syrdariya)) River) (2006)

Merchant marine:

total: 5 by type: petroleum tanker 4, refrigerated cargo 1 (2008)

Ports and terminals:

Aqtau (Shevchenko), Atyrau (Gur'yev), Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk),
Pavlodar, Semey (Semipalatinsk)

Military
Kazakhstan

Military branches:

Ground Forces, Naval Force, Air and Air Defense Forces, Republican
Guard

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - 2 years; minimum age for volunteers NA (2004)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 4,176,731 females age 16-49: 4,219,636 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 2,871,205 females age 16-49: 3,551,032 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 145,495 female: 140,149 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.9% of GDP (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Transnational Issues
Kazakhstan

Disputes - international:

Kyrgyzstan has yet to ratify the 2001 boundary delimitation with Kazakhstan; field demarcation of the boundaries with Turkmenistan commenced in 2005, and with Uzbekistan in 2004; demarcation is scheduled to get underway with Russia in 2007; demarcation with China was completed in 2002; creation of a seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains under discussion; equidistant seabed treaties have been ratified with Azerbaijan and Russia in the Caspian Sea, but no resolution has been made on dividing the water column among any of the littoral states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 3,700 (Russia); 508 (Afghanistan) (2007)

Illicit drugs:

significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS markets, as well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra (for the drug ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of Europe; significant consumer of opiates

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

@Kenya

Introduction
Kenya

Background:

Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. KIBAKI's NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government's draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005. KIBAKI's reelection in December 2007 brought charges of vote rigging from ODM candidate Raila ODINGA and unleashed two months of violence in which as many as 1,500 people died. UN-sponsored talks in late February produced a powersharing accord bringing ODINGA into the government in the restored position of prime minister.

Geography
Kenya

Location:

Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and
Tanzania

Geographic coordinates: