UN to Assist Investment in Industry

A new United Nations office focusing on economic development is expected to help attract investment to Kyrgyzstan and lend impetus to major new projects, say NBCentralAsia experts.



Sergey Strizhak, the head of the Moscow office of the UN Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, told NBCentralAsia that the agency plans to open an office in Kyrgyzstan which will help with projects in the hydroelectricity, industrial and transport sectors.



“UNIDO’s leadership has decided to open a Central Asian office in Kyrgyzstan to assist in developing its economy,” he said.



Strizhak said UNIDO would be supporting an investment forum in Bishkek at the beginning of September.



UNIDO officials met Kyrgyz prime minister Almazbek Atambaev in July during a visit to look at the country’s investment climate and learn more about its industrial and agriculture potential.



Kyrgyzstan has been a member of UNIDO since 1993, and the agency has implemented eight projects worth more than 850,000 US dollars since then.



UNIDO coordinates industrial programmes within the framework of the United Nations, promoting industrial development and cooperation on a global, regional and national level.



Strizhak noted that while UNIDO will helps attract potential investors, they have to negotiate with the government on their own.



“The organisation has the capacity to attract investors with a good reputation, and this ensures that the money coming into Kyrgyzstan will be unsullied,” he said.



NBCentralAsia observers say this is exactly the kind of economic boost that Kyrgyzstan needs.



Yuriy Svistov is deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz Business Council for the Eurasian Economic Community, Eurasec, says UNIDO has chosen Kyrgyzstan because it is a small country where it will be easier to monitor progress. His council is organising the September investment forum.



Svistoc believes that in addition to the areas that investors are traditionally keen on – energy, mining and road construction – there is a need to raise their interest in processing industries.



According to Usen Usupov, the prime minister’s advisor on Eurasec, UNIDO will help guarantee that medium and large investment projects are conducted to international standards.



Initial meetings between UNIDO members and government ministries have shown that there are a lot of areas where they can work together, he said, adding that it is greatly to Kyrgyzstan’s advantage to cooperate with an institution that engages both with the public and private sectors.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)