ies: foodstuffs, manufactures, raw materials, fuel, machinery
and transport equipment
partners: China, Cote d'Ivoire, Hong Kong, UK, Germany

Debt-external: $426 million (1995 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: bilateral $36.1 million; multilateral $34.7 million (1994)

Currency: 1 dalasi (D) = 100 butut

Exchange rates: dalasi (D) per US$1-10.513 (December 1997), 10.200
(1997), 9.789 (1996), 9.546 (1995), 9.576 (1994), 9.129 (1993)

Fiscal year: 1 July-30 June

Communications

Telephones: 11,000 (1991 est.)

Telephone system:
domestic: adequate network of microwave radio relay and open wire
international: microwave radio relay links to Senegal and
Guinea-Bissau; satellite earth station-1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 5, shortwave 0

Radios: 180,000 (1993 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 1 (government owned)

Televisions: NA

@Gambia, The:Transportation

Railways: 0 km

Highways:
total: 2,700 km
paved: 956 km
unpaved: 1,744 km (1996 est.)

Waterways: 400 km

Ports and harbors: Banjul

Merchant marine: none

Airports: 1 (1997 est.)

Airports-with paved runways:
total: 1
over 3,047 m: 1 (1997 est.)

@Gambia, The:Military

Military branches: Army, Navy, National Police, National Guard

Military manpower-availability:
males age 15-49: 286,847 (1998 est.)

Military manpower-fit for military service:
males: 144,547 (1998 est.)

Military expenditures-dollar figure: $1.2 million (FY96/97)

Military expenditures-percent of GDP: 3.8% (FY93/94)

@Gambia, The:Transnational Issues

Disputes-international: short section of boundary with Senegal is
indefinite

______________________________________________________________________

GAZA STRIP

Introduction

Current issues: The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim
Self-Government Arrangements ("the DOP"), signed in Washington on 13
September 1993, provides for a transitional period not exceeding five
years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank. Permanent status negotiations began on 5 May 1996, but have
not resumed since the initial meeting. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to
transfer certain powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian
Authority, which includes a Palestinian Legislative Council elected in
January 1996, as part of interim self-governing arrangements in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities
for the Gaza Str