Oct 03 2002 BBC Monitoring Service - Minister for Energy Raila Odinga is calling on the international community to give the Somali Republic [meaning Somaliland] the recognition it deserves. Raila observes that Somali [as heard] has made a lot of progress towards free trade and democratization, and was safer than many countries in the world.
The energy minister was officially launching the book "Search for a new Somali identity" that has been authored by a respected Somali ambassador, Husayn Ali Dualeh [phonetic].
[Raila] Somaliland has not been recognized by any country. But in spite of the international isolation, they have made tremendous progress in trying to build an economy out of the ruins of the civil war.
They basically depend on livestock which they sell to other countries and through that they are able to raise sufficient revenue to reconstruct an economy. The economy is fairly liberalized. The foreign currency regime is liberalized. They have a very efficient communication network. They have five independent telephone companies.
Source: Somaliland Net.
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