s: tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly
for export

Agriculture: accounts for 6% of GDP; major cash crop is sugarcane;
other crops - vegetables, cotton; not self-sufficient in food

Illicit drugs: one of many Caribbean transshipment points for
narcotics bound for the US and Europe

Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $15 million;
Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-89), $171 million

Currency: 1 Barbadian dollar (Bds$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Barbadian dollars (Bds$) per US$1 - 2.0113 (fixed
rate)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

@Barbados:Transportation

Railroads: 0 km

Highways:
total: 1,570 km
paved: 1,475 km
unpaved: gravel, earth 95 km

Ports: Bridgetown

Merchant marine:
total: 12 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 61,563 GRT/103,632 DWT
ships by type: bulk 4, cargo 6, oil tanker 2

Airports:
total: 1
with paved runways over 3,047 m: 1

@Barbados:Communications

Telephone system: 89,000 telephones
local: island wide automatic telephone system;
intercity: NA
international: 1 INTELSAT (Atlantic Ocean) earth station; tropospheric
scatter link to Trinidad and Saint Lucia

Radio:
broadcast stations: AM 3, FM 2, shortwave 0
radios: NA

Television:
broadcast stations: 2 (1 pay)
televisions: NA

@Barbados:Defense Forces

Branches: Royal Barbados Defense Force (includes the Ground Forces and
Coast Guard), Royal Barbados Police Force

Manpower availability: males age 15-49 71,153; males fit for military
service 49,488 (1995 est.)

Defense expenditures: exchange rate conversion - $NA, NA% of GDP

________________________________________________________________________

BASSAS DA INDIA

(possession of France)

@Bassas Da India:Geography

Location: Southern Africa, islands in the southern Mozambique Channel,
about one-half of the way from Madagascar to Mozambique

Map references: Africa

Area:
total area: 0.2 km2
land area: 0.2 km2
comparative area: NA

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 35.2 km

Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

International disputes: claimed by Madagascar

Climate: tropical

Terrain: a volcanic rock 2.4 meters high

Natural resources: none

Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
meadows and pastures: 0%
forest and woodland: 0%
other: 100% (all