ation.
Suriname's economic prospects for the medium term will depend on
renewed commitment to responsible monetary and fiscal policies and
to the introduction of structural reforms to liberalize markets and
promote competition. The new government of Ronald VENETIAAN has
begun an austerity program, raised taxes, and attempted to control
spending. the exchange rate has responded by stabilizing. The Dutch
Government has restarted the aid flow, which will allow Suriname to
access international development financing.

Svalbard:
Coal mining is the major economic activity on Svalbard.
The treaty of 9 February 1920 gives the 41 signatories equal rights
to exploit mineral deposits, subject to Norwegian regulation.
Although US, UK, Dutch, and Swedish coal companies have mined in the
past, the only companies still mining are Norwegian and Russian. The
settlements on Svalbard are essentially company towns. The Norwegian
state-owned coal company employs nearly 60% of the Norwegian
population on the island, runs many of the local services, and
provides most of the local infrastructure. There is also some
trapping of seal, polar bear, fox, and walrus.

Swaziland:
In this small landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture
occupies more than 60% of the population. Manufacturing features a
number of agroprocessing factories. Mining has declined in
importance in recent years: diamond mines have shut down because of
the depletion of easily accessible reserves; high-grade iron ore
deposits were depleted by 1978; and health concerns have cut world
demand for asbestos. Exports of soft drink concentrate, sugar, and
wood pulp are the main earners of hard currency. Surrounded by South
Africa, except for a short border with Mozambique, Swaziland is
heavily dependent on South Africa from which it receives four-fifths
of its imports and to which it sends two-thirds of its exports.
Remittances from the Southern African Customs Union and Swazi
workers in South African mines substantially supplement domestically
earned income. The government is trying to improve the atmosphere
for foreign investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and
sometimes floods persist as problems for the future. Prospects for
2001 are strengthened by government millennium projects for a new
convention center, additional hotels, an amusement park, a new
airport, and stepped-up roadbuilding and f