al, can
impede the economic development of a country in the current rapidly
changing, technology-driven world.

Location: This entry identifies the country's regional location,
neighboring countries, and adjacent bodies of water.

Map references: This entry includes the name of the Factbook reference
map on which a country may be found. The entry on Geographic
coordinates may be helpful in finding some smaller countries.

Maritime claims: This entry includes the following claims: contiguous
zone, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone, exclusive fishing
zone, extended fishing zone, none (usually for a landlocked country),
other (unique maritime claims like Libya's Gulf of Sidra Closing Line
or North Korea's Military Boundary Line), and territorial sea. The
proximity of neighboring states may prevent some national claims from
being extended the full distance.

Merchant marine: Merchant marine may be defined as all ships engaged
in the carriage of goods; all commercial vessels (as opposed to all
nonmilitary ships), which excludes tugs, fishing vessels, offshore oil
rigs, etc.; or a grouping of merchant ships by nationality or
register. This entry contains information in two subfields-total and
ships by type. Total includes the total number of ships (1,000 GRT or
over), total DWT for those ships, and total GRT for those ships. Ships
by type includes a listing of barge carriers, bulk cargo ships, cargo
ships, combination bulk carriers, combination ore/oil carriers,
container ships, intermodal ships, liquefied gas tankers, livestock
carriers, multifunction large-load carriers, oil tankers, passenger
ships, passenger-cargo ships, railcar carriers, refrigerated cargo
ships, roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, short-sea passenger ships,
specialized tankers, tanker tug-barges, and vehicle carriers.
A captive register is a register of ships maintained by a
territory, possession, or colony primarily or exclusively for the use
of ships owned in the parent country; it is also referred to as an
offshore register, the offshore equivalent of an internal register.
Ships on a captive register will fly the same flag as the parent
country, or a local variant of it, but will be subject to the maritime
laws and taxation rules of the offshore territory. Although the nature
of a captive register makes it especially desirable for ships owned in
the parent country, just as in the internal register, the ships may
also be owned abroad. The capt