COUNTRY NAME: Somali Democratic Republic LAND AREA: 627,337 km2
POPULATION: 9,8 million (2009 est.) LANGUAGE: Somali (official),
Arabic, Italian, English CURRENCY: 1 Somliland Shiling (SOS) =
100 Cent; 1 EUR = 2.221,76 SOS (Nov. 2010) MAIN CITIES:
Mogadishu (capital), Hargeysa, Kismaayo NATIONAL DAY: 26 July –
Independence Day TIME ZONE: Standard Time is GMT + 3 Covering a
land area of 637,657km2, the Republic of Somalia has a long
coastline on the Horn of Africa and to the north faces the
Arabian Peninsula, where traditionally it has had important
commercial and trading ties. For many years the country has been
driven by factional conflicts and the lack of a functioning
national administration which have acted as major breaks on
inward investment and economic development. As a result few
reliable up-to-date statistics are available about the Somali
economy. It can be safely stated that Somalia is one of the
poorest countries in the world. The UNDP’s Human Development
Index ranked it 161 out of 163 countries