| inbluevt | Date: Sunday, 2013/07/28, 10:44 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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BISHKEK, Jul 28 2013 (EurasiaNet) - With Westerners now leery of investing in Kyrgyzstan, it is perhaps inevitable that officials in Bishkek turn to China as they try to attract capital for infrastructure development.
Beijing professes a desire to help Kyrgyzstan without setting conditions on assistance. Yet, as some Kyrgyz experts note, there are still sovereignty concerns connected to forging closer economic ties to
China.
Uncertainty in the mining sector, most notably the government’s continuing efforts to change the terms for foreign investors at theKumtor gold mine, has dampened enthusiasm among Western companies for
investing in Kyrgyzstan.In the Fund for Peace’s 2013 Failed States Index, Kyrgyzstan fell squarely in the “warning” column, ranking 48th out of the 178 countries surveyed. Only Uzbekistan – ranked 44th in the survey – was deemed to be more unstable among the five countries comprising formerly Soviet
Central Asia.
Western wariness was on display during a recent two-day, government-sponsored investment conference in Bishkek on Jul. 10-11.A joint statement released by representatives of 40 foreign aid agencies and multilateral organisations, issued in response to a government appeal for various infrastructure development projects worth about five billion dollars, noted that donors were willing to earmark
almost two billion dollars in “potential resources” to develop Kyrgyzstan’s troubled economy over the next four years.
But it also reminded Kyrgyz policymakers of a need to cultivate “efficient institutions” and trim state expenditures.China notably did not send a delegation to the investment conference. But on Jul. 15, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Bishkek and offered a glowing appraisal of Kyrgyz-Chinese bilateral relations. Chinese investment – now up to 1.7 billion dollars since Kyrgyzstan
gained independence in 1991 – will always be free of “additional conditions” and undertaken on the basis of “equal partnership”, Wang told local journalists.
Message edited by inbluevt - Sunday, 2013/07/28, 10:47 PM |
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