India Ocean Territory(British) Location:
49°27'N, 2°33'W
India Ocean Territory(British) Geography:
At 49°28'N, 2°35'W, Alderney, Guernsey, Herm, Sark, and some other smaller islands have a total area of 30 square miles (78 km2) and a coastline of about 30 miles (50 km). By itself, the island of Guernsey has a total area of 25 square miles (63 km2). Guernsey is situated 30 statute miles (48 km) west of France's Normandy coast and 75 statute miles (121 km) south of Weymouth in England and lies in the Gulf of St Malo. Lihou, a tidal island, is attached to Guernsey by a causeway at low tide. The terrain is mostly level with low hills in southwest.
Elevation varies across the bailiwick from sea level to 375 feet (114 m) at Le Moulin on Sark. The highest point in mainland Guernsey is Hautnez (363 ft; 110 m), in Alderney at Le Rond But (306 ft; 93 m), in Jethou (248 ft; 75.6 m) and Herm (322 ft; 98 m). Natural resources include cropland.
India Ocean Territory(British) People:
Population
- July 2005 estimate 65,228 (197th)
- Density 836.3 /km2 (12th1)
2,166 /sq mi
India Ocean Territory(British) Government:
Government British crown dependency
- Head of state Elizabeth II, Duke of Normandy
- Lt. Governor Sir Fabian Malbon
- Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland
- Chief Minister Mike Torode
India Ocean Territory(British) Economy:
Unlike many countries, Guernsey has not delegated money-creation to the central bank and has instead issued interest-free money since 1816. As a result the government has not had to use increasing amounts of tax revenue to repay debt to the central bank, which has led to low income tax rates, no goods and services tax and no capital gains tax.
Financial services, such as banking, fund management, and insurance, account for about 55% of total income in this tiny Channel Island economy. Tourism, manufacturing, and horticulture, mainly tomatoes and cut flowers especially freesias have been declining. Light tax and death duties make Guernsey a popular offshore finance centre for Private Equity Funds. However while Guernsey is not a member of the European Union the EU is forcing Guernsey to comply more and more with its own rules. As with other offshore centres, Guernsey is also coming under increasing pressure from bigger nations to change its way of doing business in many ways. Guernsey is currently changing the way its tax system works in order to remain OECD and EU compliant. From 1 January 2008, it will operate a Zero-Ten corporate tax system where most companies will pay 0% corporate tax and a limited number of specific banking activities will be taxed at 10%. As a result it is confronting what it terms a financial "black hole" of forty-five million pounds or more according to some estimates which it aims to fill through economic growth and indirect taxation. Guernsey now has the official ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code GG and the official ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code GGY; market data vendors, such as Bloomberg, will report products related to Guernsey using the alpha-3 code.
Guernsey also has a thriving non-finance industry. It is home to Specsavers Optical Group , which manages the largest optical chain in the UK and Ireland and also operates in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Australia and Spain. Healthspan also has its headquarters in Guernsey.
Guernsey issues its own sterling coinage and banknotes. UK coinage and English and Scottish banknotes also circulate freely and interchangeably.
Public services, such as electricity, water, and postal services have been commercialised by the States and are now operated by companies wholly owned by the States of Guernsey. Guernsey Telecoms which provided telecommunications was sold by the States in a 'fire sale' to Cable & Wireless. Wave Telecom, (owned by Jersey Telecom) also provides some telecommunications excluding local loop services. Gas is supplied by an independent private company. Both the Guernsey Post postal boxes and the telephone boxes are painted blue, but otherwise are identical to their British counterparts, the red pillar box and red telephone box.
Ports and harbours exist at St Peter Port and St Sampson's. There are two paved airports in the bailiwick (Guernsey Airport and Alderney Airport), and 3 miles (5 km) of railways in Alderney.
The Guernsey Railway, which was virtually an electric tramway, and which began working on 20 February 1892, was abandoned on 9 June 1934. It replaced an earlier transport system which was worked by steam, and was named the Guernsey Steam Tramway. The latter began service on 6 June 1879 with six locomotives. This leaves Alderney as the only Channel Island with a working railway.
India Ocean Territory(British) More Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey | 
