Ñòðàíèöà: 2/7
Britain is a major financial centre, housing some of the world’s leading banking, insurance, securities, shipping, commodities, futures, and other financial services and markets. Financial services are an important source of employment and overseas earnings. Business services include advertising, market research, management consultancy, exhibition and conference facilities, computing services and auction houses.
By the year 2000, tourism is expected to be the world’s biggest industry, and Britain is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. The industry is Britain’s second largest, employing nearly 7% of the workforce. Retailing is also a major employer and Britain has an advanced distribution network. An important trend in retailing is the growth of out-of-town shopping centres.
The computing services industry continues to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, and information technology is widely used in retailing and financial services.
A notable trend in the services sector is the growth of franchising, an operation in which a company owning the rights to a particular form of trading licenses them to franchises, usually by means of an initial payment with continuing royalties. The main areas include cleaning services, film processing, print shops, hair-dressing and cosmetics, fitness centres, courier delivery, car rental, engine tuning and servicing, and fast food retailing. It is estimated that franchising’s share of total retail sales is over 3%, a figure which is likely to increase.
DEFENCE
The strength of the regular armed forces, all volunteers, was nearly 271,000 in mid-1993 — 133,000 in the Army, 79,300 in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and 58,500 in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. There were 18,800 women personnel — 7,500 in the Army, 6,800 in the RAF, and 4,400 in the Royal Navy.
British forces’ main military roles are to:
ensure the protection and security of Britain and its dependent territories;
ensure against any major external threat to Britain and its allies; and
contribute towards promoting Britain’s wider security interests through the maintenance of international peace and security.
Most of Britain’s nuclear and conventional forces are committed to NATO and about 95% of defence expenditure to meeting its NATO responsibilities. In recognition of the changed European security situation, Britain’s armed forces are being restructured in consultation with other NATO allies.
Under these plans, the strength of the armed forces is being cut by 22%, leaving by the mid-1990s some 119,000 in the Army, 70,000 in the RAF and 52,500 in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines. This involves reductions in main equipment of:
three Tornado GR1 squadrons, four Phantom squadrons, two Buccaneer squadrons and part of a squadron of Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft;
12 submarines, nine destroyers and frigates and 13 mine
countermeasures ships; and
327 main battle tanks.
Civilian staff employed by the Ministry of Defence will be reduced from 169,100 in 1991 to 135,000.
As a member of NATO, Britain fully supports the Alliance’s current strategic concept, under which its tasks are to:
help to provide a stable security environment, in which no country is able to intimidate or dominate any European country through the threat or use of force;
serve as a transatlantic forum for Allied consultations affecting member states’ vital interests; deter from aggression and defend member states against military attack; and
preserve the strategic balance within Europe.
THE PRESS, RADIO AND TELEVISION
National Daily and Sunday Papers.
The British buy more newspapers than any other people except Swedes and the Japanese. The daily press differs in two obvious ways from that of any similar western European country. First, all over Britain most people read “national” papers, based in London, which altogether sell more copies than all eighty-odd provincial papers combined. Second, there is a striking difference between the five “quality” papers’ and the six mass-circulation popular “tabloids”.
Ðåôåðàò îïóáëèêîâàí: 8/05/2007