British Virgin Islands
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ABOUT BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
WHY BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS?Dive among shipwrecks - sail to a deserted island - captivting treasures and more...
ABOUT BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS?
Tourism is a major business in the islands, as it generates an estimated 45% of the national income. The BVI economic structure is similar to that of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and both use the U.S. Dollar as their local currency.
Steeped in the history of the British Navy, the islands are ringed by shipwrecks; the most famous of these - The RMS Rhone - is now a national marine park, and a favorite scuba diving point.
HISTORY:
Virgin Islands (British Virgin Islands)The British Virgin Islands, a British dependency (1994 pop. 13,000), 59 sq mi (153 sq km), are to the northeast. Of more than 30 islands, the most important are Tortola, Anegada, and Virgin Gorda. Road Town, the capital, is on Tortola. Tourism, farming, and fishing are the chief economic activities. Britain acquired the islands from the Dutch in 1666.
PEOPLE / CULTURE:
The great majority of British Virgin Islanders are blacks and mulattoes, the descendants of African slaves. Whites constitute a small minority, although their number has grown markedly since 1960. Tortola, of all the islands, has by far the largest population, some four-fifths of the total. About a fourth of all Tortolans live in Road Town.
The islands were annexed by the British in 1672. Two hundred years later, they were incorporated into the British colony of the Leeward Islands. The governor of the Leewards continued to run the Virgin Islands until 1960, at which point direct responsibility was assumed by an administrator (later restyled governor) appointed from London. The 1967 constitution (see Government) gave the islands internal self-government.
Under the 1977 constitution, the British monarch appoints a governor to take responsibility for defense, foreign affairs and internal security. The governor also chairs the executive council, which has five other members. The Legislative Council has 13 directly elected members, one ex-officio member and a speaker.
The offshore financial sector, which has been operating since the mid-1980s, has been a spectacular success, by virtue of the British connection, benign legislation and political uncertainty in rival centers (notably Hong Kong and Panama). However, in the last three years, the Government has been forced to respond to international pressure to tighten its regulatory regime in order to prevent money-laundering. The British Virgin Islands’ main trading partners are the US Virgin Islands, the USA and Puerto Rico.