Businesses to Help Reform Regulatory Framework
Thursday, 2 August, 2007
Businesses to Help Reform Regulatory Framework
Thursday, 2 August, 2007
On July 23, President Kurmanbek Bakiev signed a decree on “measures to optimise the regulatory system”, designed to reduce the ability of state institutions to meddle in commercial firms’ activity.
This latest decree follows a similar one signed at the beginning of July which sought to reduce the ability of government agencies to run checks on businesses.
The new decree requires to government to work with the business community to come up with a system within the next month for assessing the impact that state regulation has on business activity. The findings will be used to prepare a final bill.
The secretary of the president’s Investment Council, Talaybek Koychumanov, told NBCA that the decree was initiated by the business community rather than the government.
“The state is going to support measures to remove barriers standing in the way of businesses, and to reduce state interference in the economy,” he added.
NBCentralAsia analysts say the initiative could well improve the business climate, although they say any bill will need to take cognisance of the high level of corruption in Kyrgyzstan and the generally poor observance of the law.
A 2007 report by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal ranked Kyrgyzstan 79th out of 161 countries in its economic freedom index. Neighbouring Kazakstan was the highest-placed in Central Asia, at 75, while Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were way down the list in 132nd and 152nd place respectively.
“The reason why the number of permits [required] is not falling and they continue to run checks is that our authorities are not subject to scrutiny and are not answerable for their actions,” said the director of the Bishkek Centre for Economic Analysis, Sapar Orozbakov. “The problem is not the number of documents, but the authorities themselves.”
However, Taalai Asylbekov, the director of the International Business Council, is more optimistic, saying the government’s decision to join forces with the business community to draft the legislation is a sign of progress.
“The two recent presidential decrees designed to improve conditions for the business community in Kyrgyzstan indicate that the country’s development strategy is being implemented at some level,” he said.
In May, the government adopted a development strategy designed to increase gross domestic product growth rates to eight or nine per cent by 2010. Real GDP growth was just 2.5 per cent last year while GDP per capita was around 430 US dollars.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
