Postcard from Bishkek

My Diary has let me down!

It told me that today was “Clear your Desk Day”, but Google assures me that was actually 4 days ago.  Typical … I missed it and I am late again!

That’s one of the hazards of living here.  People seem to have a totally different concept of time.  We Brits may not be as punctual as the Germans and Japanese, but we are usually on time – within a reasonable timeframe, that is.  Sitting in a meeting waiting for fifteen or twenty minutes (or longer) for people to arrive is a common occurrence – and very frustrating.

What’s more, I feel myself “going native” at times, especially if the meeting is nearby.  I sit at my desk until it’s nearly time and then I get up and go only to discover that I have misjudged the time to get to the meeting, or there is unusually heavy traffic, (maybe someone important has arrived and they’ve blocked the roads), and I have to sneak in muttering “izvineetye za opasdaniye”, (sorry for being late).

What was really annoying about this particular instance was that I had prepared myself with inordinate scrupulousness.  I spent some of the long New Year break going through the piles of papers on my desk, deciding what I could safely throw and what needed to be kept and archived.  Where possible I tore up papers into note sized pieces suitable for writing myself reminders on the unused side and bought a shedder to tear up the rest into tiny pieces, (it makes a good toilet for the kittens who have to master the art of climbing out through the fortichka, – the little window used as a ventilator – it’s quite high up and they can jump down from it if I put them up there but they can’t yet jump up to it.)

I felt that I was really beginning to make progress and was feeling really proud of myself … and then I discovered … I’m late again.

As it happens, the new year has begun and what should be a quiet time has proved to be anything but.  Even the extended holidays seemed to be crammed full with events, meetings, work and incidents.  In a way that was expected: there’s always the end of year routines to start and we take the opportunity of a slow period in the hotels to deal with renovations and an early “spring clean”.  The occasional tourists that are around make few demands on our time so we are able to spend some time concentrating on preparations for the new season; signing contracts, updating websites and so forth, as well as doing the usual everyday tasks.

To make matters more complex, I have become vice chairman of the International Business Council, (IBC), and President of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators, (KATO). And both posts have brought additional responsibilities – and work.  So far, IBC has been more or less what I expected; we have a very good Executive team who are able to handle almost anything that comes up which means that the Chairman and I are really there in a support and figurehead role … and, it seems to me, that’s how it should be.

KATO, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish.  It’s much smaller – with a smaller budget – and over the years the President has played a much bigger role in the day-to-day affairs of the Association.  In my previous terms as President, (this is my fifth term, I was President from 2005 to 2007 and again in 2009), I tried to move the Association away from this model.  After all, the President has his own company to run and can change every year … and I think that we need a professional executive team that can work independently and provided continuity and sustainability.  Unfortunately, things rarely ever go to plan and in 2009 we got sidelined spent nearly the whole year dealing with a proposal to introduce a new law “On Tourism” which, in our opinion wasn’t needed and contained a number of far from helpful measures.

Well, it seems that this year might see a repeat of that experience.  We now have a new government in place … they are trying to reorganize slim down all branches of government; eliminating whole departments and agencies, parliamentary committees and so on, distributing their responsibilities to other bodies.  Interestingly, one of the committees for the chop was that for the Protection of Human Rights … I am not sure what message that sends to the people of Kyrgyzstan, yet alone the rest of the world.  The daughter of President Karimov, of Uzbekistan, probably wouldn’t be impressed as it seems that she has been tweeting about the Kyrgyz being guilty of “provocations and nationalism”.

It is a sort of combination between an economy and an efficiency drive.  Apparently there is money in the budget to pay compensation to any employees made redundant and lose their jobs as a result of the reorganization, and according to some reports it could be as many as 3200 of them.  I am not sure how it is going to work.

As part of the reorganization, the responsibility for overseeing the Tourism Industry has been taken away from the Ministry of the Economy and Anti-Monopoly Policy and given to a new Ministry of Culture and Tourism.  We are not particularly happy about that, but our feelings have been heightened by the news that the new Minister, in post for a few weeks, accompanied President Atambaev on a visit to Turkey and announced that Kyrgyzstan will follow the Turkish example and introduce a new system of licensing of tour enterprises.

This is despite the public pronouncements by members of the new government, and agreements with various international organizations, that they are going to try and reduce the number of licenses.  It seems as if the right hand really doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

It’s not as if there is a reason for introducing licensing.  The law governing licensing sets out the procedure for introducing a new form of licensing and gives the reasons to for doing so – none of which, so it seems to me, apply in this case.

I understand that the Tourism industry in Turkey is strong and it may well be natural for officials to look at it in the hope of learning from their experience, but Kyrgyzstan is not Turkey and there are significant differences between the two.  If they really want to learn from other countries, then they could just as easily look at the UK and the Netherlands which also have strong tourism industries but don’t have a system of licensing.  They also represent considerably different markets from Kyrgyzstan but their experience is just as valid as that of Turkey.

He seems to think that this measure will help to “bolster tourism”, but I am not sure how he sees that as coming about.  The government still doesn’t have a concept of what sort of tourism they want to see in the country and they put precious little effort into marketing the country as a destination.  One of my colleagues pointed out in an article in a Russian newspaper that when we go to tourism fairs we often end up having to act as Geography teachers and explain to people who have never heard of the country, exactly where Kyrgyzstan is.

In one of the telephone interviews that I had to field as a result of the Minister’s announcement, I was told that he felt it was necessary to “control” the industry.  It seems to me that this is what it is all about … “control”.  Forget the “Free Market Economy”, (if there is such a thing – I know there is a controversy amongst economists and political scientists on this very point), and put the clock back to a “central Command Economy”.

The journalist told me that he had said that many tour operators simply bought a “patent”, paying a small fee, and then not having to pay taxes.  Hence the budget lost money.  “What patent?”, I asked, “there isn’t an appropriate patent for running a tour business.  There isn’t even a patent for many of the occupations in the industry, such as guides,” (and where there are – for example, for renting out horses – the fees are extremely high.)  If it is tax he is worried about, then he ought to look at the Tax Code.  If it’s a question about patents, then he should look at the rules about patents.  It seems to me that the introduction of licensing is like “taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut”!

Apparently, the new Minister has promised that the appropriate legislation will be amended before the start of the 2012 season.

So, it looks as if I am going to be busy this year … with little chance of clearing my desk.

 

Before President Atambaev went off to Turkey he received a Chinese delegation.  That meant the news was full of stories about China and economic cooperation between the two countries.  In particular there were stories about the proposed new China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, mining projects … and the new Datka power generation and transmission project.

They are all quite important for Kyrgyzstan, but that last one has been in our minds quite a bit recently.  So far, we’ve been lucky here in the city center.  Whereas the power cuts apparently continue in other parts of the city, as a result of the overloading of the power distribution network, we have been only occasionally been affected.  The Energy Ministry has announced a draft plan for drawing up energy saving measures from now until 2015, and that is going out for public discussion.  At least, apparently, our neighbours, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have resolved their differences about energy “leaking” from the distribution system … that’s a euphemism, another one is “unsanctioned outtake” … read into that what you will.

Also, it looks as if the price of gas will soon rise as Kazakhstan has increased their prices, perhaps by as much as 15%.

The implementation of the new law on gambling, which outlawed Casinos, is still causing a bit of a rumpus.  Protests about the failure of the authorities to ensure the close of Casinos are still taking place, but the Finance Police assure us that they have the matter in hand and some criminal cases have been filed where there have been gross violations of the new law.  There are still comments, however, about the possibility of the owners going to court to challenge the decision of the Parliamentarians.  Some, however, have decided to simply “up sticks” and “move to pastures new”.

Those protests have gathered some international attention.  There was, for example, an interesting article about the “rent-a-mob” nature of many protests here with some people changing sides and appearing in different protests, for and against issues.

The Financial Police have also been busy on other matters as well as closing down casinos and “entertainment clubs”.  They detained the Secretary of State at the State Registry Office for apparently awarding a contract worth just under a million dollars to a firm in a tender when there were other bids which in fact lower.

There have been a number of stories about the hardships of life in the regions … a village in the Naryn oblast, built to re-house villagers who had been living in constant threat of landslides and avalanches, where the irrigation system has broken down meaning that people can’t grow produce in their gardens …  another village in the same oblast where a school has finally been repaired two years after suffering serious damage in an earthquake … the fact that some of Kyrgyzstan’s regional airports are now isolated because they are too small to accommodate modern planes and the older, smaller, planes have now been banned.

One form of “lifeline” that helps to reduce isolation in the modern world seems to be the phenomenon of social media.  One firm has done some interesting research on the extent of the use of social media, (such as: facebook, twitter, linked-in, classmates and my world – two Russian services), in Kyrgyzstan.  If their figures can be believed then social media is extensively used, not just by the young and affluent.  The Russian based services are, as might be expected, most widely used, but something like 14% of those interviewed had facebook accounts.

One tweet suggested that the mayor of Bishkek had “declared war” on beggars, but when you clicked on the link to see the news story it seems that he had merely said that they “adversely affect the appearance of the capital, create an emergency situation on the roads and annoy citizens and guests”.  Of course, he may have said something stronger which the journalist didn’t report, or maybe the twitter decided to sensationalize his remarks.

One of the things they might have seen will be the reports from Wikileaks about an old rumour that Maxim Bakiev had indeed shot his father, who then went off to German for a month to receive treatment.    This rumour was circulating widely even during Bakiev’s reign but someone found some evidence in one of the leaked cables from the embassy which the then ambassador sent in an assessment of Maxim’s influence which seemed to confirm it.

They would also have seen some reports about the damage to the high mountain glaciers, some of which are retreating at a phenomenal rate, and the flood waters are causing problems further downstream.

Amongst the pieces of good news were items about a new embassy of Saudi Arabia opening in Bishkek, joining the recently opened British embassy.  It is nice to see more diplomatic representations opening here.  It is also good to see that another international air route has been announced, this time linking Bishkek with Dubai.

Well, as usual, I could write more, (for example about the question of visas), but I am already late with this postcard … and I have already received one enquiry “where’s my postcard?”, so I think I will send this now and go back to clearing my desk.

Postcard from Bishkek: the weekly postcard that I send out as an email also gets posted on the website ianbek.kg each week – and there are other postcards which don’t get sent out.  This week, for example, there were the following posts: about Marco Polo who died on January 8th, 1324; If You Believe The National Statistics Committee … about one aspect of an analytical article on the state of the tourism industry; One of the main streets in Bishkek, Molodaya Gvardia – Avenue Of The Young Guards; the revolutionary General,  Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze after whom the city was once named; one of my favourite pastimes, Sudoku; and another of my “heroes”, the Flemish artist Bruegel.

It is now possible to follow me on Facebook, (where I have specific pages for Celestial Mountains and ianbek … and also links.kg and Kyrgyz Diary), and on twitter, (@Bishkekpostcard).

 

 

If you decide that you don’t want to receive these weekly postcards in your email anymore, please drop me a line to  and I will take you off the distribution list.  Alternatively, if you know someone who might be interested in being added to the mailing list, then get them to drop me a line and I’ll be happy to do so.

 

Tags: Kyrgyzstan, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Tourism, Weekly_Postcards