According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Nauru had an estimated population of 12,000 people with a population growth rate of 0.5%. The economy in 2005 was largely based on phosphate mining and exports, with major exports including fish and copra. Foreign relations in 2005 were mainly focused on economic cooperation with Nauru having strong ties to the European Union and other countries through trade agreements. The politics of Nauru in 2005 were dominated by President Ludwig Scotty who had been elected to office in 2004 after an election which was considered by international observers to be generally free and fair. Scotty’s government implemented major economic reforms aimed at improving living standards for all Nauruan citizens as well as encouraging foreign investment. However, the country faced significant environmental issues due to its reliance on phosphate mining, as well as issues related to poverty and inequality that needed to be addressed.
Yearbook 2005
Nauru. In May, Nauru resumed diplomatic relations with Taiwan after nearly three years of interruption. According to countryaah, Yaren District is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Nauru. This was confirmed by President Ludwig Scotty and Taiwan’s Foreign Minister in a joint statement. The former president of Nauru had broken the long-standing diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2002 and instead established relations with China. Both China and Taiwan have accused each other of using “dollar diplomacy” in their hunt for allies.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym NA stands for the country of Nauru and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
In October, Australia decided to relocate almost all asylum seekers from its disputed detention camp in Nauru. Australia has since 2001 paid N. to house refugees. Between 2001 and 2005, more than 1,200 asylum seekers were held in the Nauru camp. In the autumn of 2005, only 27 remained, of which 25 were brought to Australia. The two who remained would probably be expelled. However, according to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, the camp would not be closed.
In October Nauru, the International Action Against Money Laundering Group, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), withdrew from its black list of non-cooperative tax havens. N. had then changed their laws to close the nearly 400 so-called offshore banks on the island.
An American bank seized December Nauru’s only passenger aircraft after a ruling in Australia’s highest court. The reason was that the country had failed to pay the installments on the plane. Nauru was close to bankruptcy in 2004 but was rescued by Australia.
HUMAN AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
With a decidedly lower rate of increase than in the past, but still quite sustained, produced by a birth rate of 24 ‰, which is matched by a mortality rate of 5 ‰ (1996), the population of Nauru has reached 11,000 units (1998), for a now very high average density (524 residents / km ²). In addition to fishing, the main and almost only resource of local interest is still the extraction of phosphates (510,000 t in 1996), an activity that should be exhausted within a few years. The mining revenues, generally able to write off the trade balance (but not the public debt, which in the1985 – latest data available – was almost three times the annual GDP), are reinvested in activities outside the country, with results that are not always satisfactory.
The island seems to be heading towards a situation of dependence on the political will of friendly states; a will that has so far been demonstrated, as in the case of the payment, by way of compensation for the environmental damage produced by the mining activities (of which Nauru enjoys widely), of approximately 100 million Australian dollars, in the years 1993 – 94, by Australia (for three quarters of the amount) and New Zealand and Great Britain (for the remaining quarter). The per capita GDP, which in 1985 was over 8,000 dollars per year, has more than doubled today and would still be the highest of the small Pacific island states. Paradoxically, however, this situation of relative ease, as well as the good level of education, is the cause of profound political uncertainty and the difficulty of taking the necessary restructuring and planning initiatives in the economic field.
