ABSTRACT
The (Former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia (ROM) is a small state with a land area of 25,733 square kilometres (about one-tenth of the size of the UK and of the former FRY, and about one-twentieth of the size of France), with a population of only 2 million in 2005. It is a mountainous and extensively forested country, with twenty-four mountains exceeding 2,000 metres above sea level. Much of the economically active population engages in agriculture, especially dairy farming, but agriculture only accounted for 11 per cent of GDP in 2004. Agriculture is concentrated in the valley of the river Vardar, which runs from north-west to south-east and on into Greece and the Aegean sea, and in the valleys of its tributaries, with considerable irrigation. There is some production of rice and tobacco, the latter supplying cigarette factories in Prilep, Skopje and Kumanovo. The river valleys enjoy warm Mediterranean summers, but the highlands get bitterly cold in winter. The country has significant deposits of zinc, lead, copper, chrome and nickel ores and considerable hydroelectric power potential, which served as the basis for the promotion of significant metallurgical and electro-metallurgical industries by the former Communist regime, as well as deposits of non-metallic minerals (asbestos, mica, coal, quartz and gypsum). There are also significant food-processing, textile, clothing, footwear, chemicals, timber-processing and bus-building industries. However, industry only contributed 26 per cent of GDP in 2004, whereas services accounted for 63 per cent and agriculture 11 per cent. Officially, 38 per cent of the workforce was unemployed in 2004 (third quarter), but many of those registered as unemployed were actually engaged in the large ‘black economy’. Recorded per-capita GDP amounted to only 7,100 US dollars in 2004, at purchasing power parity, but this omits income generated by the ‘black economy’ (CIA 2005). The republic’s major cities are the capital Skopje (population c.600,000 or c.30 per cent of the total population), Bitola, Tetovo, Gostivar, Kumanovo, Titov Veles, Kicevo, Prilep, Strumica, Stip and Ohrid.
