In 1999, the population of Kiribati was estimated at approximately 100,000 people. The economy of the country is based largely on services, fishing and subsistence farming. Its main industries are copra production and tourism. Kiribati has a long history of strong foreign relations with other countries in the Pacific region and beyond. In terms of politics, Kiribati has had a presidential republic with Teburoro Tito as President since 1999. His Boutokaan te Koaua Party continued to hold a majority in Parliament after their victory in the 1999 elections. See ethnicityology for Kiribati in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Kiribati. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Kiribati. Severe drought caused the state of emergency to be announced in early March. President Teburoro Tito appealed to the outside world for support to build new desalination plants. Two of the country’s islands, Tebua Tarawa and Abanuea, were completely submerged in June. The reason was rising seawater levels as a result of the greenhouse effect. In September, Kiribati joined the UN.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of KIR which stands for Kiribati and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
Kiribati was the first country to enter in the year 2000. The island of Milenio – named in 1999 for the purpose of boosting tourism – was the center of festivities in the preceding hours.
Together with Tuvalu and the Maldives, in March 2002, Kiribati declared that it would take steps against the United States refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Global warming threatens to flood, thus eradicating small island states.
In July 2003, Anote Tong was elected President. He beat his brother Harry in the election.
China severed diplomatic relations with Kiribati after it entered diplomatic relations with Taiwan in November 2003.
When Kiribati entered diplomatic relations with Taiwan in November 2003, China severed diplomatic relations with the country.
A 2006 UNICEF report showed that many countries in the region are showing high levels of development. However, Kiribati is at its worst end in terms of childhood mortality and curable childhood illnesses, such as respiratory illnesses and diarrhea.
That same year, Kiribati created the world’s third largest marine reserve. Fishing is prohibited in the vast ocean area, which houses several hundred different species of fish and coral.
Economic conditions
Kiribati’s economy is very weak, negatively affected by the lack of manpower, the weakness of infrastructures and geographic isolation. This situation, already serious in itself, is weighed down by the adverse climatic conditions, which often upset the territory. Until 1979 the extraction of phosphates, which were found in deposits superimposed on the coral formations, fueled a consistent flow of exports, but by now the mines are almost exhausted. Fundamental for the State, therefore, remain international aid (especially Japanese), the proceeds from the sale of fishing licenses to Japan, Russia and the Republic of Korea., remittances from emigrants and above all tourism, which covers more than a fifth of GDP. Agriculture is essentially subsistence and insufficient to cover the food needs of the population: in addition to bananas, pandanus and papayas, intended for internal consumption, the only relevant local product is copra, obtained from coconuts and exported. The latter, despite the increase in investments, was however affected in the last years of the 20th century. the scarcity of rainfall and the decrease in prices on international markets. Since the mid-1980s, the cultivation of seaweed has begun, which is sold as a raw material to numerous foreign pharmaceutical and food industries.
