Introduction
The British Virgin Islands have total area of 150 sq km and consist of about 60 islands lying to the north west of the U.S. Neighbour island with the largest area is Puerto Rico. Islands attract plenty of tourists, tourism is one of the main branches of country's economy.
The largest and most heavily populated Island, with about 16,000 inhabitants, is Tortola, which has about 16,000 inhabitants. The capital is Road Town. There are about 4,000 inhabitants who reside on the other islands, 3,500 of them are in Virgin Gorda.
The British Virgin Islands were discovered by Columbus who is said to have been so impressed by their large number that he named them “Las Virgenes” in honour of St. Ursula and her 11,000 attendant virgins.
The British Virgin Islands is an internally self-governing colony with a ministerial system of Government. The Constitution was adopted in 1967. Elections are held at intervals of not more than five years. The Governor is appointed by the Crown and is responsible for internal security, defence, civil service, external affairs, the administration of the courts and finance. However, on the other matters he should act in accordance with the advice of the Executive Council consisting of the Governor as Chairman, two ex-officio members (the Attorney General and Financial Secretary), the Chief Minister, appointed by the Governor as the elected member who appears best able to command a majority in the Legislative Council, the Deputy Minister and two other ministers appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister.
