In 2015, the population of Dominica was estimated to be around 73,000 people. The majority of the population is African and Caribbean with a small percentage of immigrants from other countries. The economy of Dominica is largely reliant on agriculture, tourism and services such as banking and finance. It also has a small manufacturing sector that produces goods such as apparel and electronics. In terms of foreign relations, Dominica is a member of several international organizations including the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the United Nations. See ehealthfacts for Dominica in the year of 2005.
In 2015, politics in Dominica were dominated by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit who had been in office since 2004. He was re-elected in 2014 with an administration that focused on economic development and poverty reduction initiatives. Opposition to Skerrit’s government came from both civil society groups who wanted more democratic reforms and opposition parties who wanted less government intervention in economic affairs. In addition, there were tensions between Dominica and its Caribbean neighbors over fishing rights which led to disputes over access to regional waters.
Yearbook 2015
Dominica. In June, riot-equipped police clashed with angry protesters in the Salisbury community on the west coast of Dominica. Parts of the locals had blocked the area’s main road in protest of the overhauled maintenance of the road network and the government’s disinterest in addressing the problems.
In August, tropical storm Erika pulled over Dominica, causing great devastation. Heavy downpours flooded the country’s airports, and in the capital Roseau, the river of the same name flooded and swarmed large parts of the city. Buildings and roads were destroyed and over 30 people lost their lives. According to COUNTRYAAH, Roseau is the capital of Dominica which is located in North America. The storm was the worst disaster of this kind to hit the country since Hurricane David in 1979. To help the country cope with the difficult situation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted a US $ 8.7 million loan in October. The loan is of a kind that can be given to poor countries in emergency situations.
- Also see AbbreviationFinder.org for Dominica country abbreviations, including geography, history, economy and politics.
In May, Dominica, along with four other members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) – Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – announced that they have launched a joint project to reduce poverty in the OECS countries. The project is supported by the United Nations Development Program UNDP and funded by Chile. In the same month, an agreement was signed that allows Dominica’s citizens to spend shorter periods in the EU countries without a visa.
HISTORY
A state associated with the United Kingdom since 1967 and an independent republic within the Commonwealth since 1978, the Dominica was governed, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, by the Dominica Labor Party (DLP). The situation changed after the political crisis of 1979 (due to the government’s attempt to introduce measures restricting trade union and press freedoms) and the legislative elections of 1980. Since then, it was the conservatives of the Dominica Freedom Party that ruled the country for fifteen years(DFP), who conducted a policy of close alliance with the United States and sought to promote the development of the economy, traditionally based on agriculture, by focusing on infrastructure and foreign investment.
The austerity measures enacted in agreement with international creditors and the rather authoritarian style of the prime minister, Mrs. ME Charles, fueled a growing popular discontent with the conservative government, which already had to count on a majority after the political elections of 1990 restricted parliamentary (11 seats out of 21). Openly criticized the work of the executive was above all the opposition, within which the Dominica United Workers’ Party (DUWP), founded in 1988, had established itself at the expense of the Labor Party of Dominica (LPD), which in 1985 had replaced the old DLP. Not a few controversies raised in 1992, the government’s decision to grant citizenship to foreign entrepreneurs who had made investments of at least 35 on the island. 000 dollars (even after the increase of this quota, more than 600 businessmen, mainly from Taiwan, became Dominican citizens in this way). The planned increase in taxes on car licenses then provoked, in April 1994, strikes and roadblocks by public transport workers, to which the government responded with the proclamation of a state of emergency. In this climate it did not come unexpected, in the legislative elections held in June 1995, the defeat of the conservatives of the DFP, which won 5 seats, like the LPD; winner of the consultations was the DUWP, which won 11 seats and the leadership of the government with its leader, E. James. He immediately resumed attempts to promote greater economic integration between his country and Grenada, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while internally, between 1996 and 1997, he initiated a privatization program for state-owned enterprises. In October 1998 V. Shaw was elected as the new president.