ts, and enact a
comprehensive tax overhaul. Reforms in the more politically
sensitive areas of structural reform and land privatization are
still lagging. Outside institutions - particularly the IMF - have
encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of reforms and have
threatened to withdraw financial support. GDP in 2000 showed strong
export-based growth of 6% - the first growth since independence -
and industrial production grew 12.9%. As the capacity for further
export-based economic expansion diminishes, GDP growth in 2001 is
likely to decline to around 3%.

United Arab Emirates:
The UAE has an open economy with a high per
capita income and a sizable annual trade surplus. Its wealth is
based on oil and gas output (about 33% of GDP), and the fortunes of
the economy fluctuate with the prices of those commodities. Since
1973, the UAE has undergone a profound transformation from an
impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state
with a high standard of living. At present levels of production, oil
and gas reserves should last for more than 100 years. Despite higher
oil revenues in 1999-2000, the government has not drawn back from
the economic reforms implemented during the 1998 oil price
depression. The government has increased spending on job creation
and infrastructure expansion and is opening up its utilities to
greater private-sector involvement.

United Kingdom:
The UK, a leading trading power and financial
center, deploys an essentially capitalistic economy, one of the
quartet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Over the
past two decades the government has greatly reduced public ownership
and contained the growth of social welfare programs. Agriculture is
intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards,
producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labor force.
The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy
production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any
industrial nation. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and
business services, account by far for the largest proportion of GDP
while industry continues to decline in importance. The economy has
grown steadily, at just above or below 3%, for the last several
years. The BLAIR government has put off the question of
participation in the euro system until after the next election, i