The Republic of Vanuatu

An island country in Melanesia, formely called New Hebrides (oh, so that is why no more news on Hebrids... ups :o)), good to know), with the capital city of Port Vila. The area is 12 190km, with the population of cca 205 thousand. This archipelago consists of some 83 islands that spread along the area of 800km -- the most famous ones being Espiritu Santo, Malakula, Efaté (with the capital city), Tanna etc. Most of the islands are mountainous or volcanic with mainly tropical climate.

In the early 17th century Spanish discovered these islands (1606), but it was only James Cook (1774) that named these islands The New Hebrides. The islands were under the French and British administration since 1887 and in 1906 it was agreed to establish Anglo-French Condominium. Since 1960s the country called for self-governance and in 1980, the independent republic was announced. There has been some political instability in 1990s, with attempted coup in 1996, and new elections were called several times since 1997.

The economy is based on agriculture (eg. fishing). Other industries are offshore financial services and tourism. There are no real mineral deposits. The economy is dependent on few commodity exports. Among the big threats to the economy belongs the frequent natural disasters, including severe earthquake in 1999 and 2002, followed by tsunami. The GDP growth is around 3% since 1990s. Vanuatu belongs among the tax havens, with no income tax, no capital gains tax etc.

Most of the population is rural, out of which some 95% are native Melanesian or Ni-Vanuatu, the rest are mainly British and French, followed by Asians and other Pacific islanders. Surprisingly only some 8% of population are of animistic religions, main part of population, cca 60%, belong to Presbyterian Church, and cca 15% being both Catholic and Anglican.