container 5, liquefied gas 2, petroleum tanker 20,
refrigerated cargo 2

Airports: 34 (2001)

Airports - with paved runways: total: 17 over 3,047 m: 8 2,438 to 3,047
m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 under 914 m: 2 (2001)

Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 17 over 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to
2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 7 under 914 m: 8 (2001)

Military Vietnam

Military branches: People's Army of Vietnam (includes Ground Forces,
People's Navy Command [including Naval Infantry], Air and Air Defense
Force, Coast Guard)

Military manpower - military age: 17 years of age (2002 est.)

Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 22,220,891 (2002 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 13,978,653
(2002 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 961,124
(2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $650 million (FY98)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.5% (FY98)

Transnational Issues Vietnam

Disputes - international: Vietnam disputes several offshore islands
with Cambodia, preventing delimitation of a maritime boundary; Cambodia
accuses Vietnam of territorial encroachments and initiating armed border
incidents in seven provinces; demarcation of boundaries with Laos is
nearing completion, but Laos protests Vietnamese squatters; involved
in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with China, Malaysia,
Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei; maritime boundary with China in
the Gulf of Tonkin still awaits ratification; Paracel Islands occupied
by China but claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam; demarcation of the land
boundary with China has commenced, but details of the alignment have
not been made public

Illicit drugs: minor producer of opium poppy with 2,300 hectares
cultivated in 2001, capable of producing 15 metric tons of opium;
probable minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin; domestic
opium/heroin/methamphetamine addiction problems

This page was last updated on 1 January 2002

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Virgin Islands

Introduction

Virgin Islands

Background: During the 17th century, the archipelago was divided into
two territorial units, one English and the other Danish. Sugarcane,
produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy during the 18th
and early 19th centuries. In 1917, the US purchased the Danish portion,
which had been in economic decline since th