LAK

Exchange rates:

kips (LAK) per US dollar - 9,658 (2007), 10,235 (2006), 10,820 (2005), 10,585.5 (2004), 10,569 (2003)

Communications
Laos

Telephones - main lines in use:

94,800 (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

1.478 million (2007)

Telephone system:

general assessment: service to general public is poor but improving; the government relies on a radiotelephone network to communicate with remote areas domestic: multiple service providers; mobile cellular usage growing rapidly; combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular subscribership about 25 per 100 persons international: country code - 856; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region) (2007)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 7, FM 14, shortwave 2 (2006)

Radios:

730,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

7 (includes 1 station relaying Vietnam Television from Hanoi) (2006)

Televisions:

52,000 (1997)

Internet country code:

.la

Internet hosts:

1,015 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

1 (2000)

Internet users:

100,000 (2007)

Transportation
Laos

Airports:

42 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 9 2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 33 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 9 under 914 m: 23 (2007)

Pipelines:

refined products 540 km (2007)

Roadways:

total: 29,811 km paved: 4,010 km unpaved: 25,801 km (2006)

Waterways:

4,600 km note: primarily Mekong and tributaries; 2,900 additional km are intermittently navigable by craft drawing less than 0.5 m (2007)

Merchant marine:

total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,370 GRT/3,110 DWT by type: cargo 1 (2008)

Military
Laos

Military branches:

Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF): Lao People's Army (LPA; includes
Riverine Force), Air Force (2008)

Military service age and obligation:

15 years of age for compulsory military service; minimum 18-month conscript service obligation (2006)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 1,549,774 females age 16-49: 1,570,702 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 993,162 females age 16-49: 1,052,053 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 73,973 female: 72,758 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.5% of GDP (2006)

Military - note:

serving one of the world's least developed countries, the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced; its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in countering ethnic Hmong insurgent groups; together with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the government, the Lao People's Army (LPA) is the third pillar of state machinery, and as such is expected to suppress political and civil unrest and similar national emergencies, but the LPA also has upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks; there is no perceived external threat to the state and the LPA maintains strong ties with the neighboring Vietnamese military (2008)

Transnational Issues
Laos

Disputes - international:

Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion of demarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over islands in the Mekong River; concern among Mekong Commission members that China's construction of dams on the Mekong River will affect water levels

Illicit drugs:

estimated opium poppy cultivation in 2008 was 1,900 hectares, about a 73% increase from 2007; estimated potential opium production in 2008 more than tripled to 17 metric tons; unsubstantiated reports of domestic methamphetamine production; growing domestic methamphetamine problem (2007)

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

@Latvia

Introduction
Latvia

Background:

The name "Latvia" originates from the ancient Latgalians, one of four eastern Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of the Latvian people (ca. 8th-12th centuries A.D.). The region subsequently came under the control of Germans, Poles, Swedes, and finally, Russians. A Latvian republic emerged following World War I, but it was annexed by the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized by the US and many other countries. Latvia reestablished its independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Geography
Latvia

Location:

Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and
Lithuania

Geographic coordinates: