Economy of Velaheria
 Flag of Velaheria | |
| Currency | Velher Wran (VW) |
|---|---|
| 1 March — 31 April | |
Trade organisations | None |
| Statistics | |
| GDP | USD 82 billion (PPP, 2021) |
GDP growth | 3.4% (2021) |
GDP per capita | USD 2,831 (PPP, 2021) |
GDP by sector | Services: 30,7% Industry: 42,3% Agriculture: 18,0% |
| 5.6% | |
Population below poverty line | N/A (2021) |
| 0.30 (2021) | |
Labour force | 18 million (2021) |
Labour force by occupation | Services: 32,1% Industry: 40,9% Agriculture: 18,0% |
| Unemployment | 5-7% (2021) |
Main industries | List
|
| External | |
Export goods | List
|
Import goods | List
|
Velaheria had maintained one of the most closed and centralized economies in the wurld since the 1940s until the 1990s, However following the collapse of the socialist regimes in argis following the Silent revolutions, Velaheria gradually started to open up its economy and liberalise since the 2000s and gain high growth rates in its economic growth as a result. For several decades, it followed the Central pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Extensive communist support allowed Velaheria to rapidly register very high growth rates, However, this has also lead to systematic inefficiencies which are largely visible in the economic production and activities of velaheria.
The State expertises in the production of heavy machinery, metals and minerals which form the backbone of its economy. It also has its fair share of growth through agricultural activities which form a large part of its economy.
Services are a relatively moderate part of the nation, with the average services available being small scaled due to the centralization of policies and the ban on private ownership and existence of large scale state owned companies inside the nation, though several minor small and medium private organizations and companies thrive inside the nation's largest cities, due to a general lack of oversight by the government on their activities,and even at times, promoting private companies to be established inside velaheria.
History
Velaheria has maintained one of the most closed and centralised economies in the wurld since the 1940s. For several decades, it followed the Central pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Extensive communist support allowed Velaheria to rapidly register very high growth rates.
Systematic inefficiency began to arise around 1960, when the economy shifted from the extensive to the intensive development stage, The shortage of skilled labour, energy, and transportation significantly impeded long-term growth and resulted in consistent failure to meet planning objectives. In the 1970s, the situation worsened, when the food production absolutely plummeted. This resulted in several small riots across Velaheria, but ultimately the government decided to rectify the bureaucratic, centralised mess by giving more power and autonomy to the communes which resulted in the increase in food production again in the 1980s and 1990s, but plummeted once more in the 2000s due to the climatic disturbances experienced by Velaheria which weren't seen in the last couple of decades.
Velaheria declared the last four-year plan unsuccessful in December 2001 and thereafter stopped announcing plans, a series of natural disasters throughout the 2000s caused severe hardships due to climatic disturbances. By 2005, the situation improved owing to a return to agricultural outputs and modern farming tactics, but the economy continues to suffer from mild food shortages and damaged infrastructure. In an attempt to recover from the collapse, the government began structural reforms in 2003 that formally legalised private ownership of assets and decentralised control over small goods production. A second round of reforms in 2011 led to an expansion of market activities, partial monetisation, flexible prices and salaries, and the introduction of incentives and accountability techniques. Despite these changes, Velaheria has largely maintained control over its companies and assets. It practices a form of state capitalism and market regulation while it advances towards a form of capitalistic market-oriented economy, where productivity and intelligence is valued by the state.
Economic sectors
Agriculture
Since 1950s, virtually all of the country's agricultural land has been in the socialist sector (state enterprises or cooperatives).
The basic farming entity since the revolution has been farmers' collective, which are basically collective farms where the lands of some neighbouring individually owned farmers is incorporated and is then farmed to have greater amounts of harvests, however this has also taken a toll on the farmer's morale as not all of them are pleased with the amounts of shares they get out of their produce, with often being unpleased with the results, which has the effects of them relying somewhat on their personal produces from their own private land, whose ownership is guarrenteed by the velaherian constitution.
Collective farms have increased in area by 7 times since 1950. In 2015 there were 1,700 collectives with over 1,000,000 members, There are 256 state farms, which are officially owned and operated by the government employing 206,432 workers, Collective farms hold about 90,000 km² (plus about 120 km² in private plots), and state farms hold 25,000 km², Members of collective farms are permitted to cultivate personal plots of 5,000 m² or less and to maintain some livestock.
Such personal plots reached a peak of popularity in the early 1980s, when they had accounted for 3,600 km², By 1995 their area had decreased to 1,600 km², Production from personal plots is minor and serves primarily as a food source for the cultivator.
All of the farms are nationalized and are used for collective farming. No one can own more than 1 hectare of land, and only for residential purposes, with such ownership being monitored by the VPV, with any signs of holding any personal property can lead to that family being exiled or being persecuted by the government, due to their said actions.
Collectivization has been actively promoted across velaheria, with mass collectivization starting in the early 1950s and 1960s, this lead to early successes in developing food security and surplus food production, which even lead to the increment of the distribution of calories per person, by 25% in the following years, this system usually required heavy amounts of irrigation and farm labour, with some farmers being forced to work on the collective fields, but that lead to the increase of the general crop production.
Younger workers left for better jobs in the cities and productivity fell. Reforms in the 1970s saw more investment and improvements began to appear gradually, though these developments were subsidised by the labours of the military, who were sometimes asked to perform farming to maintain the production quotas, however this wasnt that much of a success due to the heavy amounts of priority being provided to the velaherian industrial growth and development which saw most of the budget of velaheria being dedicated towards industrial growth and development of consumer goods but not towards the agricultural sectors, which resulted in the subsequent drop in production of crops across velaheria.
There were record harvests in the 1980s, however these quickly decimated due to a result of, terrible climatic changes and droughts, which plagued the southern parts of the nation, and started a three year long famine, which got worsened by the lack of seafood/riverfood, harvests by the fishermen, due to a lack of petroleum imports and a reduced budget, nearly 300,000 people died due to this famine, which only stopped after the 1986-1988 agricultural reforms, done by the government in order to boost agricultural production inside velaheria.
Government policy encourages cooperation and specialization among the various agricultural units. Both informal and formal arrangements exist. Mutual aid in terms of machinery or labor for particular tasks had long been practiced among neighboring farms, and this continues under the collectivized farming system. More formal arrangements took shape in the 1960s and expanded in the 1970s and expanded in the upcoming decades. Many of these took the form of "joint agricultural enterprises," entities that somewhat resembled stock companies. Some cooperative organizations specialize in such activities as fattening of hogs or cattle, production of eggs or drying and production of feed mixtures. Others offer agrichemical, construction, land improvement, or marketing services. A large number engage in multiple activities which tend to increase the harvests of secondary and fodder crops necessary to sustain the farming of animal products and husbandry related goods.
Velaherian fisheries export riverfood, primarily crab, to Stedoria and Fravina. Crabs, clams and conches from the river waters of Velaheria are popular in Stedoria, possibly because the less salty water improves taste.
Energy and mineral resources
Mining
Velaheria has been noted throughout history for its rich mineral deposits and has long served as the economic backbone of several velaherian entities during the middle ages and later that of the dolchic colonial governments in Velaheria, which helped both the dolchic kingdoms and the velaherian colonial authority to rapidly industrialise in the upcoming decades to sustain the demands of the growing dolchic population and to create cheaper consumer goods to earn larger revenues.
Velaheria has reserves of more than 145 mineral types distributed over 60% of its territory with ten reserves recording large deposits of magnetite, tungsten ore, graphite and gold. Among the largest resources high estimated reserve are: 21 million tons of Zinc; non-metallic resource of 90 billion tons of limestone and 5 billion tons of magnesite; and other mineral sources such as 5 billion tons of iron, 3.6 billion tons of anthracite, 2.1 million tons of copper, 2 million tons of barite, 2 million tons of graphite, 2 thousand tons of gold.
Coal has been the most abundant resource of the Velaherian State, and has been mined since the 1880s, However since the independence of Velaheria in 1941, Coal has served a major role in fulfilling the growing energy requirements of the state. By the estimates of the Velaherian Ministry of Finance, its assumed that Velaheria has a reserve of about 3.6 billion metric tons of coal, and that puts the value of its coal reserves at an astounding A$ 514.8 billion.
About 34.2 million tons of coal is mined each year in velaheria, of which 12.2 million metric tons of which is exported to foreign markets, however, this constitutes a stable source of income for the velaherian state, which helps the regime to import what it requires.
Copper is also another strategic resource that is heavily mined inside of velaheria along with coal, though its discovery wasnt made until the end of the velaherian war, and copper was imported from dolch states until that era, it was with the establishment of the DPRV, that the new regime, began efforts to search for their own copper reserves, in order to supplement the industrial and domestic requirements of the nation.
Velaheria is estimated to hold a total amount of 2.1 million metric tonnes of copper metal, among which an yearly 165,000 metric tonnes of copper is mined and refined for the industrial requirements of Velaheria.
Mining of iron ore has been the main backbone of the velaherian industrial development which started in the 1880s and 1890s as part of the greater connectivity between the Dolchordenstadt and the Dolchic kingdoms, though it only started booming after the end of the velaherian war of liberation in 1941, after that Several key ambitious projects were made to increase iron production inside the mineral rich provinces in the north, which resulted in quadrupling the production of iron by the 1960s alone.
As for the modern day production, About 41.1 million tonnes of iron is mined every year, with about 1/3rd of that getting exported to other nations, while the rest is used up for state purposes, with the largest consumers being the construction and military industrial complexes.
Energy
Velaheria has a record of instable energy production, due to frequent power cuts, and old power grids across the nation, however it still boasts as being one of the major consumers of electricity in the east argic region.
Most of the Energy requirements of velaheria are met by coal, Coal serves as the most widely used fuel for running the numerous powerplants across the nation. Velaheria has decent amounts of anthracite and coking coal in the province of Nordom, which helps the state to supply electricity to the people, As coal is used mainly for industry and electricity generation, Velaheria suffers from acute pollution in the industrial areas of the nation.
Natural gas is another major component used to fuel natural gas powerplants across the nation, unlike coal however, natural gas is not largely available in velaheria itself and has to be imported from other states, mainly from Dazhdinia and Fina through extended pipelines that go through stedoria and end in Vertia.
Energy production was at 827 Twh in 2018 while total energy consumption was at 1,121 Twh that year, though most of the energy imports were from neighbouring stedoria and from Dazhdinia. Most of the energy was from coal at about 72% of the total production, while natural gas generated nearly 16% of the energy, the rest is generated by renewables such as hydropower and solar energy.
Renewable sources have also played a huge role in the energy requirements of the velaherian state as, a large portion of the annual electrical consumption needs is met by hydro-electric and geo-thermal sources, as most of it is used for the energy needs of the western regions, where most of the ecological reserves are located and few people live there, except in the vertian region, where a large population concentration is located. Hydropower meets about 10% of velaheria's total energy requirements and the rest is fulfilled by geothermal energy, which fills about 2% of velaheria's energy requirements.
Energy consumption has fluctuated between 1,100 twh and 1,200 twh since the 2000s, due to increase in coal mining and refinement, along with increase in imports from other nations.
Industry and manufacturing
Velaheria implements planned economy in industry. The government provides fuel and materials for a factory, while the factory manufactures products and quantities according to the government's requirements. Although this policy has changed since the 1990s as the state budget has gradually seen some distortion and the stratified system of the state run industry was liberalized in favour of the factories, which would now receive their materials from state owned industries at subsidised prices and could determine their own production levels of goods and products, though still with large amounts of government supervision
Velaheria's policy of rapid industrial developmental strategy assigned top priority to developing heavy industry, with parallel development in agriculture and light industry. This policy was achieved mainly by giving heavy industry preferential allocation of state investment funds. More than 50% of state investment went to the industrial sector during the 1943–1965 period, this was done in part due to the ravages that the country faced after the end of the velaherian war of liberation and lost most of its pre war industrial capacity by the end of the war in 1942.
In the early 1950s, the Party implemented a series of rapid reconstruction plans focused around the rebuilding and expansion of the industrial capacity of the velaherian state as well as to increase the agricultural outputs of velaheria by the end of the five years plan, these plans were generally a success and by the end of 1956, the Industrial capacity of the velaherian state had recovered somewhat, and the agricultural sector was performing well under way. This increase in production and as a subsequent in revenues, led to the further industrialisation and development of the industrial sector of velaheria, by the early 1960s, the Industrial sector had reached and even outgrew its pre war production levels. Since the 1960s the Velaherian industrial sector grew at a rate of 5% in each year, and by the 1970s and the 1980s the industrial sector of velaheria was the most productive sector of velaheria, and contributed more than 50% in the national gdp and nearly 65% in the national budget.
After the fall of socialist states in the late 1980s and early 1990s , The Velaherian state faced a sheer drop in revenues collected by the state and thus wanted to revive its stagnating economic growth by promulgated a joint venture law to attract foreign capital and technology. The new emphasis on expanding trade and acquiring technology was not, However, popular in the minds of the hardline-socialists who advocated that velaheria shouldnt lean so much towards capitalistic tendencies and should instead try to become more self reliant and industrialised in order to attain self sufficiency.
However as a result of declining food productions and increasing amounts of economic stagnation and faliure in terms of fulfilling quotas, Velaheria announced the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the northeast regions of Bersia (Vertian Special Economic Zone). Investment in this SEZ has been adequete and fast as a result of the liberalization of the economy in the early 2000s.
Problems with bureaucracy and corruption have somewhat hindered growth and development. Nevertheless, thousands of small and medium sized rhodellian, iverican and delamerian businesses had set up profitable operations in Velaheria since the late 2000s and early 2010s with ever increasing amounts of investments and joint ventures between the state and these foreign companies as a result of the economic liberalization of velaheria and the adequete transportation facilities there.
Textiles
The most successfully growing export industry is the garment industry. Production is by a Velaherian firm for a Iverican firm or other foreign partner, by an Velaherian firm operating in Veleheria with an iverican partner, or by Velaherian workers working in Rhodellian or other foreign factories. Wages of these garment workers and fabric designers are among the lowest in south eastern argis.
Automotive industry
The Velaherian motor production establishes military, industrial and construction goals, with private car ownership by citizens remaining on medium demand mostly due to the emergence of the new middle classes during the late 1990s and the 2000s, However this has still remained on a low front as a result of the economic hardships faced by velaheria in the 2000s due to the food shortages that it faced due to environmental issues. Having dolch origins (the subsequent practice of cloning foreign specimens, and a recent automobile joint-venture), Velaheria has developed a wide-range automotive industry with production of all types of vehicles. The basis for production is in urban and off-road minis; luxury cars; SUV cars; small, medium, heavy, and super-heavy cargo; construction and off-road trucks; minibuses/minivans, coach buses, civilian and articulated buses, trolleybuses, and trams.
Services
Retail
In the early 1990s the official retail sector was mainly state-controlled, under the direction of the Velaherian People's Services Bureau, they ensured to distribute the people the regular day to day consumer goods for their requirement, which was free of any cost, and could be consumed by anyone, despite their wages, though beauracracy made such efforts falter in the early 2000s.
Consumer goods are adequate but of poor quality, with most provided on a ration basis. There are state-run stores and direct factory outlets for the masses, and special shops with luxuries for the elite classes, as well as a chain of hard-currency stores with branches in large cities.
In 2002 and in 2010, private markets were progressively legalized, mostly for food sales, as the state has failed to provide food to the populace on a larger scale, with about 10% of the population facing situations close to malnutrition, though this situation has mostly been handled due the opening of several small food retail stores which, sell food to the people.
As of 2013, urban and farmer markets were held every 10 days, and most urban residents lived within 1 km of a market, which made it easier to acccess those markets and ensured that every person could get access to the basic neccesities of their daily survival.
As of 2014, these malls sold competing brands of goods, for example at least ten different kinds of shampoo are being sold, there were also several types of bicycles, food products and other commodities that were being sold mostly to the elite sections of the society.
In 2019, some independent sources estimated there were 660 government-approved markets employing about 1.6 million people.
Banking
The Modern Era of Finance in Velaheria began in the Dolchic colonial era, when the Dolchs first instituted the ideals of stocks and interests along with fixed banking assets in the then called, Dolchordenstaat Velaheria, Due to structural weaknesses of traditional dolchordenstaat law, Velaherian financial institutions focused primarily on commercial banking based on close familial and personal relationships, and their working capital was primarily based on the float from short-term money transfers rather than long-term demand deposits. The modern concepts of consumer banking and fractional reserve banking never developed among traditional velaherian banks.
Early Velaherian banks were small native banking institutions that operated pretty much independently of one another and relied on providing remittance funds to outward workers and slaves, and before the dolchic invasion, it had become so popular that most people had actually dropped off their traditional buisnesses to start these banking ventures, with most of these institutions charging high interest rates, due to their not being any central authority that was responsible for those native banks.
However when the dolchs got into control, and colonised much of modern day velaheria, they started forming the foundations of the banking system that velaheria has today, with the first actual solid institutions to regulate the flow of cash being set up, during that era, and being subsequently developed to give way to the establishment of the Central Bank of Dolchordenstaat, during the early 1920s, which regulated the flow of hard currency, and regulated what interest rates could be charged by the subordinate banks under the authority of the Dolchordenstaat's rule.
This, However changed with the advent, of the Velaherian War of Liberation, as the fall of the Dolchic theocracy, and the establishment of communist rule in velaheria, and the Rise of the Velaherian People's party in the position, as the sole ruling party of the newly liberated nation.
Transport
Railways
The 9,910 km long railroads connects the main cities of Bastaria, Vertia and Götain and its surrounding villages and smaller cities and has train stations and signal posts to run the trains.
- 1,772 km (2002),
- 1,138 km (1995); narrow gauge:
- 4,321 km 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge (858 km electrified)(2002)
- 1,987 km 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge (858 km electrified)(1996)
- 1,250 km 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge; (2002) ev. transformed to 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge in 1980
- 1,026 km 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge (2002)
Roads
Roads form an important part of transportation, as most of the economic and daily transportation occurs through the roadways. Most of Velaheria is well interconnected by the national and provincial highways, along with the minor roads in between various villages and suburban areas. Most of the roads, however, only go up to the border of Nordom. And from there only the N-4 and N-5 National highways traverse the lands, which are the most significant roads in Velaheria, due to their usage as high-speed highways for economic exchanges.
Most of the roads that traverse through the Velaherian topography, in present date, have been constructed during the Dolchic and later. During the 1st to 3rd Five years plan of the Velaherian regime, which led to the repair and extension of almost the entirety of Velaherian roadways, along with increasing interprovincial connectivity and promoting economic growth in the upcoming decades,
The roads connect almost all places which have a population of more than 100 people, with several of them traversing through one another, thus making the road infrastructure quite well. However, this is only the case for the southern provinces. The northern provinces don't have many roads going through them due to the rugged topography of the northern provinces, thus making it quite difficult to travel through those areas.
The development and the maintenance of these roads are divided according to their importance. For example, the national highways are maintained and extended by the People's Infrastructural and Construction Bureau, while the provincial highways are maintained by the provincial governments of those provinces.
Challenges
Corruption
Corruption inside Velaheria is widespread. This is mainly observed by the fact that even the simplest of actions require's some sort of illegal actions. Corruption is visible in all sections of society. The people have largely seemed to have accepted it, partially due to the lack of government's interest to act on such matters.
Nepotism
Nepotism in Velaheria has been plaguing since the creation of the Democratic People's Republic. Significant politicians and military officials had been rewarded for their support of the communist forces during the war of liberation in the 1940s. These were mostly favours and shares of important government owned companies, most of which are getting more and more valuable day by day. These favours resulted in the inner circle of Arin Von Starinburg to get rich, and their relatives and friends got parts of that. These elites now constitute the upper class of Velaheria. They are the ones who get the first priority in the key job opportunities like administration, research, military, etc. It has resulted it a nepotist society where there needs to be a family heritage for a person to have an exceptional quality of life.
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