Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. Working Group on Strategic Leadership in Central Gov... Author(s) Gulnara Suleymanova I do not belong to any Institution Bishkek Kyrgyzstan Title Kyrgyztan’s public governance issues File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Kyrgyztan’s public governance issues Kyrgyzstan’s economy may be considered as a small open economy with floating national currency rate in which monetary policy could have been quite a priority. Public governance has two mechanisms using which it could influence country’s economy - those are the fiscal policy and monetary policies. Implementation of the fiscal policy is under responsibility of our government (but for 15 years of Kyrgyzstan’s existence no one took responsibility for their poor decision making) and the National Bank develops monetary policy. The Ministry of Finance and Economy virtually doesn’t involve branch ministries when it develops “Midterm Budget Forecast” (Document I) for three year term that later is reviewed by the Cabinet of Ministers and after its approval is submitted to the President. After President’s approval it is set for implementation. Neither the National Bank nor Zhogorku Kenesh (the Parliament) participates in the development of Document I. And the monetary policy after its development by National Bank is not reviewed neither in Zhogorku Kenesh nor by the Cabinet of Ministers. Nowadays there is no document regulating the process of joint development of fiscal and monetary policies of the country in which the Government, the Parliament and National Bank would be involved. President Bakiev stated that the service industry (where only 18 thousand people are employed) is to be prioritized while the energy sector is not. From the day Kyrgyzstan was established each year have been recessive in terms of industrial and agricultural sectors: in 2004 industrial production share was 16 percent of the GDP of our country. Population poverty along with corruption among state officials is one of the major issues – experts estimate that there are about 70 percent of the urban population below the poverty line, and for the rural population which accounts for 75 percent of the country’s population this indicator is even higher – more than 85% of it live below the poverty line. Fighting corruption and poverty alleviation have been most frequently used catchwords of government officials from the days of country’s establishment to the present time and they still remain on paper. Also politicians frequently initiate discussions that exaggerate the issue of North and South country parts confrontation and the interaction of country’s center with regions receives less attention And the position in which is the rural population is complicated by the fact that there is nobody in the public governance who would take into account and defend their interests. For rural regions the most critical issues are: - lack of drinking water - low quality electricity service – the energy is supplied in an exceptionally irregular fashion – only for a few hours a day mostly in night hours at a price that is three times higher then the export price of the energy. - lack of support of agricultural producers Meanwhile ignoring the issues of rural region of the country that are passed over in silence by politicians and various level officials further worsens population’s living standards, leads to migration of labor force to cities and other countries and the curtailment of the agricultural sector of the economy.
