Overview of Paraguay

Overview of Paraguay

The name of the country is Republic of Paraguay, República del Paraguay.

Area of ??407,000 square kilometers.

Population 5.49 million (2000 estimate), population growth rate 2.7% (1999). 95% are Indo-European mixed race people, the rest are Indians and Caucasians. The official languages ??are Spanish and Guaraní. Most residents are Catholic.

The capital, Asunción, has a population of 550,000 (estimated in 1997). The summer temperature is 22-35℃, and the winter temperature is 12-22℃.

Head of State President Luis Angel González Macchi. Taking office on March 28, 1999.

Independence Day May 14

Introduction

It is a landlocked country, neighboring Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. Located in the northern part of the La Plata Plain, it has a subtropical climate, with an average temperature of 27°C in summer and 17°C in winter.

It was previously inhabited by the indigenous Guaraní people. It became a Spanish colony in 1537. Independence was declared on May 14, 1811. In 1865, in order to consolidate and expand its post-independence territory, the Lopez government attacked the southwest region of Brazil at that time. The coalition of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay declared war on Brazil. After five years of war, the Brazilian army was defeated. The Lopez government ceded territory and paid compensation, and the Brazilian territory It shrunk by nearly half, losing its outlet to the sea and becoming a landlocked country. Since the 1870s, the Red Party and the Liberal Party have been in power alternately. On May 4, 1954, the soldier Stroessner and the right wing of the Red Party launched a coup and came to power. Since then, Sri Lanka has been elected as president for eight consecutive terms and has been in power for 35 years. On February 2, 1989, General Andres Rodriguez, commander of the 1st Military Region, launched a military coup and overthrew Stroessner's dictatorship. In May of the same year, Luo won the general election. On May 9, 1993, Red Party presidential candidate Wasmosi was elected and became Pakistan's first democratically elected civilian president in 40 years. In May 1998, Red Party presidential candidate Cuevas was elected as the 44th president. In March 1999, Vice President and Red Party Chairman Agana was assassinated, Cuevas was forced to resign as president, and Senate President Gonzalez became president and formed a coalition government.

Politics

In 2000, the political situation in Paraguay was turbulent and unexpected incidents continued. Over the vice presidential election, fierce battles raged between political parties and among factions within each party. At the beginning of the year, the Blue Party withdrew from the coalition government and recommended party chairman Franco to compete for the vice presidential election in August. During the election process, the Blue Party took advantage of the internal contradictions of the Red Party and reached a secret agreement with the Oviedo faction of the Red Party. On the other hand, it criticized the government for corruption and incompetence and put forward a campaign platform that complied with public opinion. As a result, it won the vice president's seat as expected. The "Oviedo case" remains the focus of the power struggle in the Pakistani political arena and has a significant impact on the political situation. In May, some soldiers and policemen with Austrian background launched an attempted military coup, demanding that President Gonzalez step down; in June, Austria was arrested in Brazil, and Paraguay requested extradition. Austria is still imprisoned in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and his stay has attracted great attention from all parties.

Party disputes and official corruption have further intensified social conflicts in Pakistan, worsened public security conditions, and declined people's living standards. Strikes and demonstrations have continued, calls for Gang's resignation have increased, and the government's ruling position has become even weaker and the economy

Mainly engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, and forestry, with a weak industrial base, it is one of the most backward countries in Latin America, with 70% of the population living in poverty. The main economic activities are concentrated in the capital and Oriental City. After the 1990s, the Brazilian government implemented neoliberal economic policies, actively expanded foreign trade and introduced foreign investment, and worked hard to integrate the Brazilian economy with the economies of the other three member countries of the Southern Free Market (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay).

In 2000, in order to restore economic growth, the Gambian government adopted some economic stimulus policies, but with little effect and the economic situation remained grim. Foreign and domestic investment have plummeted, foreign trade has dropped, foreign exchange reserves have plummeted, fiscal and foreign trade deficits have expanded, foreign debt has increased, and the inflation rate and unemployment rate are both high. Although the cotton harvest is bumper, economic growth is weak, with full-year growth expected to be only 1.5%. Key economic figures in 2000:

GDP: US$7.4 billion

GDP per capita: US$1,348

GDP growth rate : 1.5%

Currency name: Guarani

Exchange rate: 1 US dollar = 3557 Guarani

Inflation rate: 9.9%

< p>Unemployment rate: 12.6%

(Data source: 2000 Quarterly Economic Review of Paraguay)

Resources Salt mines and limestone reserves are large, as well as small amounts of iron, copper, and manganese , ferrovanadium, mica, niobium, petroleum, bauxite, etc. Rich in water resources. Primary forests account for 54% of the total forest area and produce precious hard wood.

Industry The industrial base is weak, with only some light industry and agricultural and animal husbandry product processing industries that supply basic consumer goods to the domestic market. In 1999, industrial output accounted for 14% of GDP.

Agriculture Agriculture is the main pillar of Pakistan's national economy. In 1999, agricultural output value accounted for 17% of GDP, 40% of the country's economically independent population was engaged in agricultural production, and agricultural products accounted for 74% of exported goods. The main agricultural products include soybeans, cotton, tobacco, wheat and corn.

Output of major agricultural products in recent years (unit: 10,000 tons)

1997, 1998, 1999

Cotton seeds 22.1 17.4 26.5

Lint 7.5 6.0 9.0

Soybeans 310 280

Rice 14.2 8.1 9.2

Sugarcane 279.5 280.0 283.2

Sunflower seeds 4.6 8.1 9.6

Corn 105.6 87.4 98.4

Cassava 315.5 330.0 350.0

Peanuts 3.1 3.0 3.7

Beans 7.4 4.7 7.7

Tobacco 1.4 1.37 1.4

Wheat 40.0 22.9 50.0

(Data source: 2000 Quarterly Economic Review of Paraguay)

Livestock Animal husbandry once played an important role in the Brazilian economy status. In recent years, due to the lack of competitiveness of Pakistani meat, meat exports have gradually decreased, and the proportion of livestock industry in the national economy has declined (accounting for 8% of GDP in 1999). In 1992, there were 22 million hectares of pasture and beef production was 170,000 tons, of which 90,000 tons were consumed domestically. In 1999, the cattle population was 9.86 million, and nearly 40,000 tons of beef were exported, mainly to Chile and Brazil.

Forestry The forest coverage rate is 37%, approximately 15 million hectares. 70% of the forest resources are concentrated in the Gran Chaco region. Due to transportation conditions, capital, technology and other reasons, most of the timber resources have not been fully developed and utilized. However, from the 1970s to the late 1980s, the area of ??deforestation in the eastern region reached an average of 500,000 hectares per year. In 1999, the area of ??deforestation was 300,000 hectares. The average annual afforestation area in Pakistan is 5,000 hectares, but now only 2.8 million hectares of natural forests remain. In 1999, forestry output accounted for 3% of GDP.

Energy Oil depends on imports. Since the end of 1998, all crude oil produced in Argentina has been imported. In 1981, a refinery with a daily output of 7,500 barrels of oil was built near the capital Asunción. In recent years, abundant natural gas reserves have been discovered in the Chaco region near the Bolivian border. Pakistan is rich in hydropower resources, with reserves of approximately 56,000 megawatts. In 1973, Paraguay and Brazil reached an agreement to jointly build the Itaipu Hydropower Station on the Paraná River, with a total installed capacity of 12,600 megawatts (a total of 18 700-megawatt turbine generators). In 1991, the power station was fully completed. It is currently the largest hydropower station in the world, with a power generation capacity of 60 billion kWh in 1993. In addition, Brazil also signed an agreement with Argentina on the joint construction of the Yasireta-Apipe Hydropower Station. The power station has a designed installed capacity of 3 million kilowatts and will cost US$9 billion. In September 1994, the first unit of the power station began to operate and generate electricity. In 1995, the power generation capacity was 3.8 billion kilowatt-hours. Brazil is more than self-sufficient in electricity and exports most of it to Brazil and Argentina.

Tourism Tourism is one of Pakistan’s main sources of foreign exchange earnings. Foreign tourists mainly come from Argentina and Brazil. In 1997, it received approximately 4.2 million tourists and generated tourism revenue of US$559 million.

Transportation

Railway: total length 1,147 kilometers (1987). Originally controlled by British capital, it was nationalized in 1961 and modernized in 1979 at a cost of US$68 million. The central railway is 438 kilometers long, connecting the capital with the border city of Ankarnathan between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Roads: Total length 30,000 kilometers (1992), including 6,492 kilometers of dirt roads, 523 kilometers of gravel roads, and 2,700 kilometers of paved roads. The Pan-American Highway runs directly from Asunción to Bolivia. In 1991, there were 210,000 registered vehicles nationwide.

Water transport: The main port is Asuncion. The national merchant fleet mainly undertakes short-distance river transportation from Brazil to Argentina and Uruguay. In addition, Paraguay Overseas Shipping Company has commercial ships that regularly sail to major ports in the United States and Europe.

Air transportation: Pakistan has two international airports, located in Asuncion and Oriental. Domestic routes are operated by the Air Force and state-owned airlines. Paraguay Airlines (LAPSA) was originally a state-owned airline. In 1994, the government sold 80% of its shares. There are regular flights to Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Belgium and the United States.

In 1989, the voyage range was 942,000 kilometers and the number of passengers carried was approximately 239,000.

Fiscal Finance In 1999, the fiscal deficit accounted for 3.2% of GDP. The balance of payments deficit was US$315 million, of which the current account deficit was US$65 million, which reached US$345 million and US$270 million respectively in 2000.

By the end of 1999, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves were US$980 million and its total foreign debt was US$2.797 billion.

Foreign trade Agricultural and animal husbandry products are the main export products. See the following statistical table for foreign trade conditions.

Foreign trade statistics from 1997 to 1999 (unit: billion US dollars)

1997, 1998, 1999

Export volume 39.8 38.24 27.40

Import volume 41.87 39.38 28.45

Difference -2.07 -1.14 -1.06

Export volume statistics of major products from 1996 to 1999 (unit: million US dollars)

< p>1996 1997 1998 1999

Cotton 217 97 91 68

Soybeans 324 493 440 307

Meat products 46 49 68 35

Timber 94 100 68 58

Statistics on the import volume of major products from 1996 to 1998 (unit: million US dollars)

1996, 1997, 1998

< p>Consumer goods 1272 1375 1054

Capital goods 921 1041 797

Intermediate products 656 708 524

(Data source: The above statistical tables refer to the 2000 economic quarter A brief review of Paraguay)

Paraguay’s main trading partners are Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, etc.

Foreign Capital The Pakistani government actively introduces foreign capital. In 1991, the Domestic and Foreign Investment Law was formulated to implement special preferential policies for foreign investment. It stipulates that 95% of taxes will be exempted for 5 years. In 1994, the foreign investment approved by the government reached US$300 million, accounting for 51% of the total foreign investment planned to be absorbed, an increase of 316.5% over 1993. In 1996, the government approved foreign investment of US$565 million, creating 14,300 jobs. Foreign investment mainly comes from Brazil, Argentina and the United States, and investment is concentrated in the food, processing, textile and chemical industries. The amount of foreign direct investment was US$270 million in 1997, US$256 million in 1998, and decreased to US$140 million in 1999. Investments are mainly concentrated in the fields of communications, finance, industry and agriculture.

People’s Life The minimum wage set by the government in 1990 was US$140. In June 1994, the minimum wage was raised to $180. The minimum wage in 1999 was 591,445 guarani. About half of the people in the country earn less than the minimum wage. Land in Pakistan is highly concentrated, with less than 1% of the population occupying more than 75% of the country's land. Most farmers have no land or only a small amount of land, and rural areas are relatively poor. Families in poverty across the country account for 66.3% of all families, and 85% of the extremely poor people live in rural areas. In 1995, the government's investment in the medical and health field accounted for 5.1% of the GDP.

Statistics on medical and health development in 1998

Project 1998

Birth rate (per thousand people) 30

Death rate (per thousand people) people) 5

Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 people) 24

Average life expectancy (years) 70

Proportion of population drinking safe water (%) 39

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Proportion of population seeking medical treatment (%) 32

Proportion of population with daily income less than US$1 19.4 (1995)

Doctors (per 1,000 people) 1.1

Hospital beds (per 1,000 people) 1.3

Relationship with my country China and Pakistan do not yet have diplomatic relations, but trade and personnel exchanges between the two sides continue to increase. Important contacts between the two sides in recent years include: In January 1995, at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, Diogenes Martinez, Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Brazilian Senate and former Foreign Minister, visited China, and met with Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen. In May, at the invitation of the China Association for International Exchange, Bernardino Cano, leader of the House of Representatives caucus of the Paraguayan Red Party, visited China. In June, at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Paraguay, Vice Chairman Yang Zhenya led a delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress to visit Paraguay. Brazilian President Vasmosi met with the delegation. In September, Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met and hosted a banquet with Dr. Cristina Mu?oz, head of the Paraguayan government delegation and Minister of Women in the Presidential Palace attending the Fourth World Conference on Women, and key members of the delegation. In October, at the invitation of the Institute of Foreign Affairs, Esteban Aquino, Secretary-General of the Military Office of the Presidential Palace of Pakistan, and Esteban Bedoya, Director of the Asian and African Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited China.

This is the first time that the Pakistani government has sent government officials to visit China.

In June 1996, Gonzalez, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Brazilian Senate, led a delegation to visit China.