This is a translation of the article that Inga posted on Russian neweurasia

This upcoming November can bring lots of investments to Kyrgyzstan. I’m sure you are surprised. Amidst the speculations about the potential danger of the opposition rally on November 2 it sounds really unlikely that foreign entrepreneurs would dare investing money into such unstable country as Kyrgyzstan. Though political instability in Kyrgyzstan has not scared away Kazakh businessmen. Bankers, to be precise. There is, indeed, a feeling that some big cheese people in Kazakhstan has accumulated so much money that they don’t even care about putting some of their assets at risk.

As it was announced recently, the CEO of the Kazakh “Turan Alem Bank” Muhtar Abliazov is ready to invest $ 1 billion (!!!) into several business projects in Kyrgyzstan. During his recent visit to Bishkek Abliazov announced that he was also lobbying business of some of his clients, who are willing to invest into various sectors of Kyrgyz economy such as tourism, gold mining and construction projects. As it turns out this initiative may be supported on the highest state level: a number of official agreements are expected to be signed during the official visit of the Kazakh prime minister to Bishkek.
According to Muhtar Abliazov, he, personally, for starters, will invest into the banking sector. The initial investments package will account to $ 100 million. Some ground for the deal has already been paved: recently “Turan Alem Bank” has already acquired a solid package of shares from “Temir Bank” in Bishkek.

Now it is safe to state that the state support is guaranteed for some of the Kazakh investors. Muhtar Abliazov at the press conference in Bishkek was accompanied by one of the vice prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan Daniyar Usenov, who happens to be in charge for all foreign investments coming to Kyrgyzstan. Usenov didn’t hesitate advertising “Turan Alem Bank” that, according to him, had successful experience with investing in Russia, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine. Explaining why his bank is interested in investing into Kyrgyzstan Muhtar Abliazov emphasized:

“Kyrgyzstan is very attractive in terms of its legislature. The only thing that can curb foreign investors is the fact that you have restrictions when it comes to buying and selling the land. In Kyrgyzstan foreigners cannot be engaged into financial operations of this kind and it is a big problem for us. How, for instance, can we build factories and houses if we can not own the land which we utilize.”

As a matter of fact, Abliazov sounded more than logical, but I, personally, don’t see any big problems here. When it smells like big money Kyrgyz legislation can be changed by one click. We’ve already had a number of precedents, by the way. That’s why foreign can very soon benefit from working in Kyrgyzstan. On the contrary, this dream seems to be unachievable for the locals.

It might be a coincidence, but when Murat Abliazov was visiting Kyrgyzstan, the group of Kyrgyz entrepreneurs decided to meet with the president and to enlighten him on the hardships of the local business. It turned out that the main concerns of local businessmen are still the problems caused by local corrupt officials. According to Kyrgyz entrepreneurs their main fear are the criminalization and political instability. They claim that in such situation they are notable to secure their investments and to get engaged into the fair competition.

Though the majority of officials keep pretending that they don’t understand the complaints of local businesses. As the vice minister of finance commented to neweurasia :

“ I don’t understand what else we can do for them. They (businessmen) keep complaining because they are overindulged. They are dreaming that one day they will not need to pay to the state at all. As a matter of fact, we are doing our best to ease their lives: we’ve already decreased taxes tremendously, but they are still unhappy. On the contrary Kazakhs choose to come to Kyrgyzstan because they realized that conditions here are more than favorable.”

Nowadays, as the polls show, security concerns are among the main ones for those considering Kyrgyzstan as the place to invest into. According to the data of the Bishkek Business Club, investors still don’t cue to come to Kyrgyzstan. As the analysts from BBC state :

“There is a number if thrill- and adventure seekers but they have certain demands that they challenge our government with. Local businessmen, at the same time, are not on the position of making many waves. All they can do now is to hide and wait.”