ECONOMIC INTERESTS OF CENTRAL ASIAN STATES: IDENTIFICATION PROBLEMS

Talaybek KOYCHUMANOV

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Talaybek Kaychumanov, D.Sc. (Econ.), former minister of economics and finance, Kyrgyz Republic; professor, World Economy Department, Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)

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In the book The Quality of Growth the World Bank published in 2001 it is pointed out that in the 1990s the developing countries became more open, the trade/GDP ratio increased, protectionism in many regions decreased after several rounds of international trade talks. The same period saw a decrease of average tariffs; in many cases decrease was considerable. The weighted-average tariffs in the East Asian countries dropped to 14 percent; in Latin America, to 10 percent; in Africa, to 20 percent.

In the majority of regions (with the exception of the sub-Saharan states) the non-tariff barriers lowered to a great extent—to 7, 5 and 45 percent, respectively. Analysts are convinced that this became possible because the governments acquired more trust in the market, because private entrepreneurship was more encouraged, because certain branches were privatized while the barriers in marketing and sales were lifted and because domestic markets were liberalized.

This is going on all over the world—the current globalization process will not let us disregard it. One has to admit that the share of countries with transitional economies is negligible: the industrially developed countries account for 65.3 percent of world economy; the developing countries, for 29.4 percent, while the countries with transitional economies, for 4.0 percent. The IMF forecasts about economic growth in the post-Soviet republics against the background of the expected worldwide slump suggest that these newly independent states will try to widen its niche. Their interests are not always identical while their foreign economic courses contradict one another; they are not shy of officially announcing economic expansion within the CIS. At first glance this looks natural: market invites competition or even fierce rivalry. But how one should treat their numerous alliances and the commonwealth?

Out of the numerous alliances existing in the post-Soviet expanse (the CIS, the Customs, today Eurasian Economic, Union, the CAEU, today the Central Asian Cooperation Organization, and the GUUAM) the Central Asian Economic Union formed in January 1994 is the most successful. It has already set up the Central Asian Development Bank and started crediting individual projects of mutual interest for the countries involved. This is how problems should be treated.

The positive examples apart the Central Asian countries have not yet traveled far along the road leading to integration. Like the CIS they have adopted a pile of documents a small number of……………………

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