Sharing Kyrgyzstan's Gold Revenues

As Rita Borbukeeva and Nuraim Ryskulova report, the Kumtor mine, managed by a Canadian firm, has earned Kyrgyzstan an estimated 380 million US dollars in the 17 years it has been operating.



Over the years, the mine has been at the centre of debates about whether the Kyrgyz government has ensured that enough of the profits accrued to the country, and also about how much of this revenue actually benefits people living around the deposit in Issykkul region.



Erkingul Imankojoeva of Karek, a pressure group representing local villagers, argues that too little of the gold income has trickled down to people in the area in the shape of infrastructure projects.



Kumtor’s head of public relations, Sergei Dedyukhin, says the mining company paid more taxes in the first six months of 2009 than in the whole of last year. It also contributes to the Issykkul Development Fund, again at an increasing rate. He predicts it will pay four to six million US dollars into the fund this year alone, compared with a total of 2.5 million dollars to date.