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Things to know about Vanuatu

Republic of Vanuatu is an island country located in South Pacific Ocean, its origin is volcanic and as it is island country there is no land border connecting any other country but the closest are Australia which is 1,750 kilometers away, New Caledonia 540 km towards northeast, towards west of Fiji and southeast of Solomon Islands.

The country was firstly found by people of Melanesia. Fermandes de Queiros a Portuguese navigator visited the island from European the first time, He visited the largest island Espiritu Santo in the year of 1606 and given the name la Austrialia del Espiritu Santo because he claimed it as a part of colonial Spanish East Indies.

In late 18th century both United Kingdom and France claimed parts of archipelago and after some years they agreed for jointly run the archipelago and named as New Hebrides due to Anglo-French condominium.

The total land area covered by country is 12,19 kilometers square and has four large islands Espiritu Santo, Malekula, Erromango and Efate having the total population of 3 lakh approximately. The capital city is Port Vila located on Efate island has he population of 40,000.

Climate and Seasons

The country has slight tropical climate and face hot and rainy weather for 9 months the remaining 4 months are cooler, hot season starts from October. The country has more than normal rainy season, rainfall every month almost in season with the average of 2,300 millimeters and can reach up to 4000 millimeters.

Economy

The economy of the country mainly depended on agriculture, offshore financial services, raising cattle and tourism, they sell citizenship on around 1.5 lakh US dollars and the plus point is travel throughout Europe is visa-free for them if they have passport.

Vanuatu is also involved in some fishing activity but the major exports are Kava, beef, Copra, timber and cocoa and the major and mostly imported products for the country are foodstuff, machinery and equipment and fuels. Agriculture is also used to feed the population around the country and it takes around 65% of it and farmers cultivate the kava to earn money so they can buy their needs of food.

Tourism is one of the main source of income for the country as the tourists are attracted towards these islands especially the scuba divers spend their premier vacation there it brings the country much needed foreign exchange, mostly scuba divers are attracted towards Espiritu Santo to see one of the largest ship wrecked in the world of President Coolidge which was drowned in World war II.