INTRODUCTION TO KYRGYZSTAN

General information. Kyrgyzstan is a country situated in the heart of Central Asia. It is bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. Kyrgyzstan is situated among the Tien Shan Mountains, the world's third highest mountain range. The climate of Kyrgyzstan is strictly continental with cold winters and hot summers.  The population is over five million, of which approximately sixty-five percent are Kyrgyz, fourteen percent are Uzbek, thirteen percent are Russian, and eight percent are of other ethnicities. The capital of the country is Bishkek. Both Kyrgyz, a Turkic language, and Russian are the country's official languages. 

Economy. One of the main development goals of the Kyrgyz Republic is achievement of sustainable economic growth that reduces the high amount of poverty. Since gaining its independence, Kyrgyzstan has become one of the least developed countries in the region. After a dramatic decline during the first five years after independence, the national economy has begun to experience some growth at an average rate of about 5-6% every year since 1996. The current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is only at 60% of the pre-independence level. GDP per capita is US$1600 on a purchasing power parity basis (World CIA Factbook, 2003 estimate), which makes Kyrgyzstan one of the fifty lowest-income countries in the world. About 2.5 million people (50% of the population) live below the poverty line in remote rural and mountainous areas (more than ninety percent of the territory). Economic growth is mainly due to agriculture and mining, the two main sectors of the national economy. Forty percent of all exports consist of gold, which is produced by the joint Kyrgyz-Canadian company, Kumtor.

The debt burden remains to be one of the main economic problems. For more successful development, the country has adopted several strategies: the three-year National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS); Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF); Sustainable Human Development Strategy and some others. Due to successful reforms on liberalization of the national economy, in 1998 Kyrgyzstan became a member state to the World Trade Organization (WTO). For several years, Kyrgyzstan experienced difficulties of benefiting from this membership. The problem is that all other states bordered with Kyrgyzstan were not members of WTO and it could not practice free trade. The first chance for free trade opportunities has appeared since China became a member of WTO. 

Government and Politics. Kyrgyzstan's government is a republic. There are seven administrative divisions, called "oblasts" (Russian for "province"). Kyrgyzstan celebrates its Day of Independence on August 31 to mark the day back in 1991 when it regained sovereign statehood. In the first years of Kyrgystan's independence a new Constitution was passed by the Parliament in May 1993. However, because of a political crisis in the country, a referendum in October 1994 proposed two amendments to the Constitution: one that would allow the Constitution to be amended by means of a referendum; the other creating a new bicameral parliament called the Jogorku Kenesh with a full-time, 35-seat assembly and a part-time, 70-seat assembly, instead of a unicameral parliament. A February 1996 referendum amended the Constitution to provide more leverage to the executive branch. An October 1998 referendum approved constitutional changes, including increasing the number of deputies in the upper house, reducing the number of deputies in the lower house, rolling back Parliamentary immunity, reforming land tender rules, and reforming the state budget. A February 2003 referendum approved the new Constitution that has once again provided more leverage to the executive brance and less to the legislative branch. The legislature has been slated to revert back to a unicameral assembly to contain 75 deputies in 2005.

The chief of state in Kyrgyzstan is President Askar Akaev, who has been in office since 1990. The president appoints the prime minister, who is now Nikolay Tanayev. Presidential elections are held every five years. President Akaev was last reelected in 2000, and new elections will take place in October 2005. Kyrgyzstanis must be eighteen years old to vote in elections. There are over twenty active political parties in Kyrgystan, many of which are currently represented in both parliamentary houses. Some of the main political parties include the Union of Democratic Forces, the Communist Party, and the party, "My Country Party of Action." Still, a large percent of the parliamentary seats are occupied by independent, unaffiliated members.

The flag of Kyrgyzstan is red and contains a golden sun in the center. The sun has forty rays of light that represent the forty tribes of the Kyrgyz nation. In the center of the sun is a symbol that represents the Kyrgyz traditional dwelling, the yurta.