With the arrival of the new government earlier this year, the residents of our sunny republic had high hopes of a bright and happy future. Certainly, there was a change of authorities, but in all other respects life has stayed the same: the same problems, misfortunes, the same sore spots and issues still being swept under the carpet. So, who on Earth is able to solve all our most painful problems? There’s a whole load of problems, as well as ways to solve them, but there’s just one thing lacking: people with the distinctly un-ordinary ambition “to change things for the better”.

One would certainly not envy our economy, though one can certainly laud all our bankers before the international community for the percentages they receive from their clients who have borrowed money from them. But this is another matter – what I want to talk about is what I see as a fundamental problem here in Kyrgyzstan. Today, in my opinion, one of the country’s most actual problems is the difficulty of running a business here. It seems to me that in Kyrgyzstan a very high percentage of one’s salary is paid into a social fund. If I were to decide to open a small business, then in addition to paying my employees’ salaries, I must also pay 24% of each employee’s salary into the social fund. Where is my profit, if I’ve got to pay taxes, and contributions to the social fund, and salaries, and municiple charges, and, sometimes, rent as well?!

I agree of course, that it is everyone’s responsibility to pay attention to and take care of our older generation, but nevertheless there are other, more profitable and rational ways to save up for a respectable old age. Why, for example, can’t employers pay 7-8% into the social fund, and then the employees can make up the difference from their own salaries? This would guarantee both stability and honesty.

A slightly different system operates in the USA, but there will come a time when this system will be considered as well. This will help create a situation in which employers do not try and hide all their workers from inspectors, but, conversely, hire more people since they are not required to carry heavy additional costs.

Even so, not everyone has the means to open their own business, let alone develop it. Over the course of half one’s life it is not easy to save up enough money for a deposit, but interest rates on credit are simply frightening. We have very high interest rates (25-30% APR) on repayments to banks. In Italy, for example, annual rates are around 7%, and if a business is particularly profitable, then it is possible to extend the period of credit or even waive payment of interest. This works on the logic that if a business is a very good one, then it will bring additional funds to the treasury and provide additional jobs for the unemployed.

But here it’s all a little different. Our bankers go to Italy to take advantage of credit there and then come back here and offer us the same credit – only with interest rates that are 3 times higher! Why is it not possible to do it all differently, and then it would be possible to bring to order the work of the state institutions who provide these “treasury” credits.

But then there’s another problem: that of tribalism and corruption. Credit is one of the foundations of small and medium businesses, and it is therefore to approach the matter with all seriousness; our economy will in turn be built on the basis on these businesses.

It is very difficult to be honest in a dishonest state. Over the last 15 years the state has become so “anti-rights” that even our “defenders of the law” are seen by the people as enemies. The law doesn’t work, and sometimes to make it work it’s necessary to bribe either the tax man, or the judge, or someone else. It’s like in the film “Looks Like the Gods Have Gone Mad” (“Kazhetsya bogi sosli s uma”). There’s complete chaos in the country, and all one can do raise one’s hands to one’s face and shake one’s head. If you run your business honestly, most likely you’ll have to take matters to court very frequently. The only problem is it’s not always “our” people who are sitting in court. The law should remain the law… But this is a different story altogether and someone else, who sees the country’s fundamental problem in corruption, tribalism and the moral impoverishment of the population, will tell you about it.

I want to end on that point, but not on a pessimistic note – we have enough of them already. Kyrgyzstan is 15 already. By the age of 15 a child is almost completely grown. Only our child has not grown properly, with a different world view and mentality. But all is not lost. It is still possible to re-educate and change the child, make it obedient and caring. After all, the state was created for the people, not the people for the state. We will have many more moments when we are disappointed and reproach both the country and its people. Nevertheless, it is our country, not only to reproach, but also to change, so that such reproaches are not required more than once.