Economic week of Kyrgyzstan Sept. 16 - 21, 2019

The past economic week in Kyrgyzstan was marked by an abundance of important business meetings and forums, including international ones, which discussed promising areas of economic development and bilateral ties with friendly countries. No less important event was a proposal to support domestic producers in the sale of their products.
Turkmens in Kyrgyzstan. A plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Kyrgyz-Turkmen Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Humanitarian Cooperation took place this week in Bishkek.
The issues of trade and economic cooperation, cooperation in the field of industry and energy between the two countries were discussed there.
At the same time, a business forum was held for representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. It was attended by 37 entrepreneurs from Turkmenistan and more than 100 from Kyrgyzstan.
Forum participants visited local businesses to see what could be built. A video about the investment attractiveness of Kyrgyzstan was shown.
A thorough discussion took place on the construction of a large residential complex with a trading house. It is expected that there will be three towers in such a trading house. One of them will be residential, the other - for business and the third - a hotel. There are projects in the field of trade. Deliveries of energy carriers and petrochemistry to Kyrgyzstan are planned, and instead of deliveries from Kyrgyzstan industrial production, processing of agriculture. Such projects are under active discussion.
According to official data of the Turkmen side, trade between Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan has increased 200 times. And the Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists of Turkmenistan said that the Turkmen side is ready to consider opening a direct flight. However, it was emphasized that it was necessary to consider the profitability of these flights and fill them with goods. At the same time, the sides agreed to trade in national currency, that is 50/50 in manats and soms.
Caring for domestic producers. This week, the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic introduced a bill aimed at supporting its own producers. According to the scheme proposed by the Ministry, all major retail outlets in the country, and first of all in Bishkek, are invited to prescribe the creation of special places where products of local manufacturers will be placed. This is proposed in order to increase the sale of local products, which allows supporting an increase in the share of local producers by putting products on the shelves in a prominent place and combining them with one recognizable brand, designed to draw the attention of buyers primarily to products of local manufacturers.
The project policy is aimed at introducing new trade rules, by allocating separate shelves for goods of Kyrgyz manufactures in large stores indicating the country of origin of the goods "Made in Kyrgyzstan" shelftaker with differentiation of requirements, depending on the size of the trading area.
ADB grant. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $50 million policy-based grant for the first subprogram of the Promoting Economic Diversification Program, which supports the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic’s efforts to diversify the economy through reforms aimed at improving the country’s trade and investment competitiveness, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development, public–private partnerships, and the link between skills development and industry needs.
"The Kyrgyz Republic has the potential to achieve economic growth that is more sustainable, broad-based, and inclusive, but this is only possible if it maintains efforts to implement critical structural reforms that will help the economy transition to a more dynamic and globally oriented market economy," said the Director of Public Management, Financial Sector, and Trade for ADB’s Central and West Asia Department Mr. Tariq Niazi. "ADB’s assistance will help the government to gradually reduce the economy’s reliance on gold extraction and remittances and strengthen the foundation for the creation of new businesses and jobs for the people of the Kyrgyz Republic."
Financial meetings. The goals and priorities of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the Kyrgyz Republic and the prospects for developing cooperation related to the development of the private sector, attracting investments, creating new jobs, and supporting domestic producers were discussed this week in Bishkek.
At a meeting with Minister of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic Sanjar Mukambetov, head of the IFC in the Kyrgyz Republic Manizhy Mamadnabieva informed the Kyrgyz side about the work being carried out together with the Ministry on inventory of all the signed agreements of Kyrgyzstan on the promotion and protection of investments.
The parties expressed interest in enhancing mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in all priority areas.
Energy forum. The Kyrgyz-Russian Energy Forum is held this week in Bishkek, where issues of cooperation in the energy and mining sectors are discussed.
The main goal of the forum is to establish business relations between Russian and Kyrgyz enterprises in the energy and mining sectors, as well as to sign agreements on further cooperation.
The organizers of the forum are the representative office of the All-Russian Public Organization of Small and Medium Enterprises "Support of Russia" in the Kyrgyz Republic together with OJSC TNK "Dastan" with the support of the Export Support Organization (Russian Federation).
"The energy theme is very important for cooperation between our two countries and has a long history. Today, Russia is implementing its largest projects in Kyrgyzstan on gasification and oil. Therefore, cooperation in this area is very important," the representative of the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the Kyrgyz Republic said.
Relations with Kuwait. At the second session of the Joint Kyrgyz-Kuwaiti Intergovernmental Commission on Economic and Technical Cooperation in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz side proposed to work out practical measures to enhance economic cooperation, including between economic entities, to create favorable conditions for mutual supply of industrial and technical products, raw materials, consumer goods and food products. The establishment of joint ventures and logistics centers in the Kyrgyz Republic, which will significantly expand the country’s export opportunities was also proposed.
Besides, the sides worked out and discussed the most urgent areas of bilateral cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait, as well as issues of further development and activation of cooperation in such areas as trade, agriculture, energy, education, science, tourism, healthcare, culture, etc.
Kabar News Agency