Kyrgyz-Uzbek Free Travel to Boost Trade
Thursday, 8 February, 2007
Kyrgyz-Uzbek Free Travel to Boost Trade
Thursday, 8 February, 2007
From March, people will be able to travel between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan without a visa if their stay in either country is less than two months, provided that both governments manage to sign off on a recently-concluded border agreement by then.
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan share a 1,375 kilometre long border that goes along the edge of the Fergana Valley, the most densely populated area in Central Asia. Visa requirements were introduced in 2000 when relations between the two countries deteriorated rapidly.
Adyl Ismailov, who heads Lawyers of the Fergana Valley Without Borders, a non-government group in Kyrgyzstan, told NBCentralAsia that the reciprocal deal is a significant move that will decrease border tension and improve cooperation between the two states.
“It provides powerful impetus for the development of border trade, which is a means of subsistence for millions of people,” said Ismailov.
Political scientist Avez Baburov agrees, saying that relaxing the visa rules will allow more people from all over Uzbekistan to shop in Kyrgyzstan legally. Kyrgyzstan has recently become a transit point for sought-after cheap Chinese goods.
NBCentralAsia observer Vladimir Nikitin, based in Tashkent is more sceptical. He says Uzbekistan only agreed to the initiative under pressure to show it was cooperating with other members of the Eurasian Economic Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.
Nikitin said, “The significance of this agreement… should not be overestimated. Uzbek president Islam Karimov has traditionally mistrusted the Kyrgyz authorities. He thinks they are feeble and incapable of maintaining order in their own country.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
