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NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA: BAKIYEV WILL SEEK HELP
The March revolution has aggravated the economic problems of Kyrgyzstan.
Yesterday Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev arrived in Moscow. As the head of state he went abroad only once – to take part in the CIS Summit which was held in the city of Kazan. By choosing Moscow to become the destination of his first official visit, he has clearly shown what the foreign policy priorities of Kyrgyzstan are.
As the officials of the Kyrgyz Embassy in the Russian Federation said, on Sunday evening Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Kurmanbek Bakiyev in his residency in Novo-Ogarevo. The official part of the visit will start on Monday, when Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Vladimir Putin will meet in the Kremlin to discuss the current state and the perspectives of bilateral relationships between Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Besides, this very day the Kyrgyz delegation will hold negotiations with Russian Prime-Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Boris Gryzlov and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
During the meeting Presidents Vladimir Putin and Kurmanbek Bakiyev will discuss the Kyrgyz domestic policy and the prospects of extension of economic cooperation between the two countries. Following the results of the negotiations the presidents are expected to sign a joint statement. It is also planned to conclude two government-to-government agreements, the main of which is about the settlement of Kyrgyzstan’s debt to Russia.
The Kyrgyz government’s heightened attention to the economic problems is not casual. The country’s foreign debt has reached $ 1.92 billion. The figure exceeds the annual state tax revenues fivefold.
Kyrgyzstan is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the CIS. Several months long pre-revolutionary instability has increased the country’s economic problems even more. Thereto, the March Tulip Revolution that resulted in the overthrow of President Askar Akayev was also of no good for the Kyrgyz economy. According to the source of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” in the Kyrgyz business circles, “the new government didn’t manage to solve any economic problems”. More than that, it came to be clear that the country has “neither development resources nor understanding by the new leaders the full depth of the economic crisis”.
As the coordinator of the Bishkek analytical foundation “Perspektiva” Sergei Slepchenko said, at the present time “the Kyrgyz economy functions, speak gently, mechanically”. In his opinion, due to the long-drawn uncertainty in the domestic politics local businessmen are now too confused and prefer to conceal their actual production output. As a result about 40% of the Kyrgyz GDP falls on the so-called shadow economy, according to the IMF.
Analysts suppose that the Kyrgyz economy has been seriously damaged by the activity of Deputy Prime-Minister Daniyar Usenov’s state commission that had inspected personal and real estate of ex-president Askar Akayev, his family members and nearest relatives. The country lapsed into the atmosphere of common suspiciousness and distrust to all authorities’ commitments. Lots of claims made by the new government that foreign investors are about to line up to commit their capitals to the Kyrgyz economy are now being perceived just as a publicity stunt. As a matter of fact, not only large investors but also average tourists have turned their backs on Kyrgyzstan. This summer the occupancy of the Issyk Kul vacation hotels was 70–75% less than usual. By the way, quite a fortune has been invested in modernization of this main Kyrgyz health resort in recent years.
So, the head of the Institute for Globalization Studies Mikhail Delyagin believes that the visit of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to Moscow starts against an unfavorable background. “Today the Kyrgyz economy looks like a burnt field, - he told “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”. – The new government will have to create the country’s economy from the scratch. If it fails to fulfill this task the drug production and drug trafficking will become the main source of local population’s survival”.
It goes without saying that Kyrgyzstan would not be able to get away from the economic dead end just by itself. That is why the Bishkek officials hope that during his visit to Moscow President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will try to secure the real backing of his economic recovery plans. There might be discussed the already proposed by Kyrgyzstan projects that count upon the procurement of Russian capital to the development of the main budget-forming branches of the national economy – water power engineering, non-ferrous metallurgy and the construction materials production.
Viktoria PANFILOVA
"Nezavisimaya Gazeta", Russian daily, September 5, 2005
Translated by “Eurasian Home”
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