Mali is a large landlocked country
in West Africa with an area of 1,240,142 square kilometers and an estimated population of
over 11.8 million people, 73% of whom live in rural areas. Mali is considered one of
the poorest countries in the world, ranking 171th out of 174 by its human poverty
and index value. Formerly French Sudan, Mali gained its independence in September 1960.
Most people live in the southern part of the country which has most of the arable
land and urban centres.
Cotton is the foremost export,
although gold mining is becoming increasingly important. The country has also a large
population of livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) and is self-sufficient in fresh water
fish. Lack of adequate transport infrastructure remains one of the major obstacles in
economic advancement. In 1997, the Malian government continued its successful
implementation of an IMF-recommended structural adjustment program that is helping the
economy grow, diversify and attract foreign investment. The long existing single party
dictatorship was overthrown by the military in March 1991 and the following year Mali had
multiparty elections.
Mali's telephone network is at a
very low level of development. Only 26,800 telephone lines were connected in 1999, even
though the country has a potential capacity of over 42,400 lines. This results in a
telephone density of 0.25 lines per hundred population, one of the lowest in the world.
The development of telecommunications infrastructure is heavily skewed to the urban areas
with 69.9% of the total installed lines in largest cities. The teledensity (telephone
penetration per hundred population) for the urban areas is 1.78, compared to 0.08 for
the rest of the country.
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