GUADELOUPE - Economy
Between 1993 and 1997 economic growth in the region was a little stronger than in metropolitan France. In 1997 the GDP per inhabitants was 55% lower than the national average.
Dynamic construction industry
On the whole, the regional economy is unproductive and highly dependent on other countries for its supplies. It has leapt from being a plantation economy to services activities, missing out on cottage industries and industrial production. 28.4% of Guadeloupe?s GDP is generated by non-market branches.
Agriculture only represents now 4% of value added, but it still supplies the major part of Guadeloupe?s exports. Sugar cane, which is now mainly used for producing rum, and bananas remain the two main agricultural products. Nevertheless some diversification is happening, notably towards melons and pineapples. Only 28% of the territory of Guadeloupe is agricultural land. Farms are predominately geared to arable farming (45% of the agricultural land) for growing sugar cane (29%), bananas (10%), and vegetables (6%). Fruit orchards (mainly for citrus fruits) cover 1.2% of the agricultural land. Nearly half of the agricultural land is pasture, with 26% of farms geared to stock rearing. In 2000 there were 12 099 farm holdings. Most of these are small, with 84% of farms covering less than 5ha.
- In 1997 industry accounted for 6.8% of Guadeloupe?s value-added. Outside of the traditional production of sugar and rum and a few units in the agri-food sector, industry is relatively small-scale. The proportion of small businesses (employing between 20 and 49 people) accounted for 84% of all establishments working in industry, and employed 46% of the industrial workforce of Guadeloupe.
-
The construction industry in the region is dynamic. It accounts for a much as agriculture and industry put together. In 1997 construction accounted for 10.6% of Guadeloupe?s value-added compared to 8.6% in 1995. In 20 years it has considerably improved the housing amenities and reduced cohabitation of households.
-
The economic structure is characterised by the craft sector, where half the activities are in the building trades and by repair and processing activities for the local market. With 270 craftsmen per 10 000 inhabitants Guadeloupe has the highest number of craftsmen in France. Over half the island?s craftsmen work in construction.
The rate of creation of businesses (12% of the total number of enterprises operating in 2001) is close to the national average. 78% of these are business start-ups; this share is much higher than the national average (65%).
The services sector generates 79% of Guadeloupe?s GDP
The preponderant activity of the region is without a doubt the tertiary sector, with distributive trades and non-market services, and to a lesser extent hotel and catering related to tourism. The services sector is particularly oriented towards households. The distributive trades sector is well developed, with the large supermarkets (Cora, Conseil) existing alongside a host of small, traditional outlets. In 1997 the services sector generated 79% of Guadeloupe?s GDP, of which market services made up 50.4%.
Tourism has become one of the main activities in the archipelago. Guadeloupe offers much more than the traditional image of the tropical island with its idyllic sun, sand and sea. As an archipelago, its diversity offers the visitor excursions around the limestone island of Grande-Terre, or to charming Saint-Barthélémy, lively Saint-Martin, alluring Terre-de-Haut, and the wilder and more mysterious dependencies of Marie-Galante, La Désirade and Terre-de-Bas. In the interior of Basse-Terre, it also has everything for the outdoor enthusiast: a large tropical forest, the Soufrière mountain range, and cascades and waterfalls.
Guadeloupe has the highest number of hotels of France?s overseas regions with an estimated 175 hotels in 1999, with a capacity of 8 752 bedrooms. In 1999 nights spent in hotels amounted to 3 million. Since a few years now tourism has remained stable. But with its natural park on the Base-Terre, its numerous beaches, its traditional crafts and its ?dependences? (small islands of the archipelago), tourism in Guadeloupe has an exceptional potential that can bring to the region still much economic progress.
The airport of Pointe-à-Pitre Abymes ?Pole Caraibe? is the first of the Lesser Antilles. Between 1993 and 2000 its traffic increased by 45%, before falling by 10% in 2001 to 1.9 million passengers. The air freight cargo handled in the region amounted to 18 600 tons, ranking the region second of the overseas regions of France after the region Réunion. With over 3 million tons in 2000, Guadeloupe handles the second largest volume of sea freight of the French overseas départements and handles the largest volume of sea passengers with nearly 1.3 million passengers in 2000.
In 2000 the road network of the region had 339 km of national roads, and no motorway, nor railway. Nevertheless, Guadeloupe has a relatively well-developed infrastructure, and, except in the dependencies, access to amenities, shops and services is fairly easy.
|
|