In 1999, the population of Marshall Islands was estimated to be around 64,000 people. The economy of the country was largely based on fishing, subsistence agriculture and remittances from expatriates living abroad. The government of Marshall Islands had strong diplomatic ties with the United States and other Pacific nations. The politics of Marshall Islands in 1999 were dominated by a coalition government led by President Kessai Note. During this time, the country signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States, which provided economic assistance and defense protection for the islands. In addition to this, there was also an ongoing debate about self-determination and independence from foreign powers. See ethnicityology for Marshall Islands in the year of 2018.
Yearbook 1999
Marshall Islands. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Marshall Islands. The issue of damages to those affected by the US nuclear test at the Bikini Toll of 1946-58 is still relevant. According to representatives of the tribunal who approved 1,600 claims for damages, the compensation the United States paid was insufficient for those affected. An American study published shortly thereafter claimed that the number of cancer patients is particularly high in the Marshall Islands and that this was caused by radioactive fallout in connection with the nuclear weapons tests.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of MHL which stands for Marshall Islands and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
A cooperation agreement that includes to open for investment in the fishing industry was signed in May with Taiwan, with which the country had established diplomatic relations by the end of 1998.
Asian Development Bank, ADB, approved a loan of more than $ 9 million in July for, among other things. construction of a new hospital and schools on the overcrowded Ebeye island.
Geopolitical Atlas
The Marshall Islands, two chains of coral atolls, constitute an island state of Oceania, organized in the form of the presidential republic. Of the more than a thousand Marshalles islands, only those of the Majuro and Ebeye atolls are densely populated. Among the deserted or sparsely inhabited atolls, Bikini is among the best known: between 1946 and 1958, following the US occupation of the islands, it was chosen by President Harry Truman (and later by Dwight D. Eisenhower) as a place to test atomic weapons. It was in Bikini Atoll that, in 1954, the United States carried out one of the largest nuclear tests ever conducted, Operation Castle Bravo. At the time, the islanders of Bikini, together with those of Enewetak, another atoll affected by the experiments, were forcibly evacuated. Although more than fifty years have passed, Bikini is still uninhabited and polluted by radioactive waste while Enewetak, partially decontaminated in 1977 by the US military, was repopulated during the 1970s. After gaining independence from the United States in 1986, the Marshalls became part of the Compact of Free Association (CFA), which regulates agreements between the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Marshall Islands and United States. The stipulation of the CFA allowed the Marshalls to pass from the status of a territory under US trusteeship to that of an ‘associated free state’ and to obtain from the US 150 million dollars in compensation for the victims of cancer, hyperthyroidism and leukemia, diseases caused by the inevitable exposure of the population to nuclear radiation. Furthermore, according to the CFA, the United States – in addition to providing a significant amount of economic aid annually – administers the security and defense of the islands and, in parallel, uses the atoll of Kwajalein, as a military base and as a test center for latest generation missiles. The proximity to the United States also affects the country’s international relations, as confirmed by the vote against the recognition of status as an observer at the United Nations for Palestine, opposed by the Marshalls in November 2012, consistent with the US line. The scarcity of natural resources means that the country’s economy is mainly based on tourism, crafts and fishing. In addition, the economy of the Marshall Islands benefits from financial assistance from the United States which, as a result of the CFA, is committed to transferring more than $ 50 million a year to the country. But the Marshall Islands are known above all for the presence of somewhat lax banking legislation, which is characterized by the lack of financial transaction control measures. For this reason, the country was included by the OECD in the list of countries with a privileged tax regime, the so-called ‘tax havens’, from which it was removed in 2007. Global warming poses a real threat to the Marshall Islands. According to the Intergovernmental Committee on Climate Change (IPCC), by the end of the century the level of the oceans is expected to rise by more than fifty centimeters and, taking into account the possible melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the sea level could register a rise of more than two meters. The serious risk of disappearance therefore concerns the Marshalls as well as other island countries, such as the Maldives, Kiribati and Tuvalu. Together with them, the government is now seeking adequate solutions to the problem, within international institutions such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Unfccc) and theClimate Change Summit of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis).
