Where’s the fire?
but... just what do they mean?
I sometimes wonder if I am the only person in Kyrgyzstan who gets frustrated by the tendency to call important meetings at a moment’s notice …
Yesterday there was a “seminar” run by the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on a State system for the classification of hotels and other places offering accommodation in the Kyrgyz Republic. In a way, there was nothing new or spectacular in this … it has been a subject of discussion for some considerable time … but there were some interesting “points” about it.
At first I was not sure why this question was being raised once again. As I said, this question has been raised in the past. There was a state system of classification if hotels inherited from the days of the Soviet Union which was later replaced by one based on that of the Russian Federation – and which was in turn, apparently, based on a French system. It was administered by KyrgyzPatent.
In the course of time, the system expired and there was no official classification for hotels.
In the absence, the authorities set out to create one, leaning from other models and gaining “expert opinion” of how it compared with international systems. Although it was a “National” system, it was decided that it should be administered by the Association of Hotels and Restaurant business in Kyrgyzstan. Although in some countries around the world such classification systems are seen as the prerogative of the state and administered by a government organ such as a Tourism Board, this form of “self regulation” is not unusual … for example the Swiss system of classification is run by the influential Swiss Hotels Association.
So … if there is already a system in existence – why all the fuss?
It seems from the draft government decree, that the administration of the system was to be passed over to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism …
Now, that was interesting!
I wondered if that meant there was a proposal to change the system from a voluntary one to a compulsory one. That would worry me immensely, as a compulsory system becomes a license – a permission without which it is not permitted to work. Now, I have no objection to licenses … where they are necessary, (for reasons of health and safety, for example, for state security, for consumer protection in cases of natural monopoly situations … ), but if they are not necessary … then it is probably best not to create barriers which might be seen as an invitation to corruption.
However when I reviewed the documentation which came with the invitation it seemed to be the same as the previous system … “ based on a voluntary basis and with attraction of the independent organisations, and also will be realised under applications from hotels …”, so there was no apparent intention to create a compulsory system – simply a change of the administrative body.
A second point of interest was the justification. This was pretty academic but the draft government decree and the justification prepared for the parliamentarians to consider said that the decision was based in accordance with :
the legislation of the Kirghiz Republic
- the law «About state-private partnership in the Kirghiz Republic»,
- the law «About bases of technical regulation in the Kirghiz Republic»,
- the law «About introduction of a visa-free regime for citizens of some states within 60 days»,
and according to the minutes of a meeting … and so on …
What struck me as odd was the reference to “the law «About introduction of a visa-free regime for citizens of some states within 60 days»”. Everything else seemed to make sense … but this seemed very strange. The law was very short – with just three clauses following a general preamble:
The purpose of the present Law is assistance to stimulation of inflow of investments, developments of tourism, all-round activization of bilaterial relations with the countries concerning which citizens the visa-free regime according to the applied list is unilaterally entered, and also the analysis of efficiency of entered norms.
Article 1. To enter unilaterally a visa-free regime within 60 days for citizens of the states according to the applied list.
Article 2. To the government of the Kyrgyz Republic in a month:
- To notify the states for whose citizens the unilateral visa-free regime within 60 days is entered, on acceptance of the present Law;
- To bring the standard legal instruments into accord with the present Law;
- To bring to the Jogorku Kenesh proposals for legislation reduction in conformity with the present Law.
Article 3. The present Law comes into force from the date of official publication and operates till December, 31st, 2020.
As far as I could see … there was nothing here that could be used to justify such a move …
Please don’t misunderstand me … I am not opposed to a system of hotel classification per se … indeed I tend agree with the justification that such a system would “help the consumer to choose between hotels” … “providing trustworthy information about their status” … ”increase competitiveness of hotels” … and in the number of tourists and incomes … “strengthening trust of both foreign and local consumers“.
But … why refer to this law in order to justify this course of action?
Perhaps one of the most striking “points” was that the notice of the meeting, inviting all interested parties to attend, was sent out by email late on Tuesday … actually after normal office hours – after 5:00pm – that is, about 40 hours before the seminar was due to start. What’s more there were several attachments with some 50 pages of documentation to be reviewed.
Because it was sent out so late in the evening, I didn’t get my invitation until the next morning.
This time, however, we had – at least – been given a clear day’s notice. Just a week earlier, the same department had announced a planned three day seminar over a weekend … and we received the invitation just the day before.
On that occasion, the aim was to was to plan a concept and strategy for the development of tourism in the country. Again, there was nothing new ore spectacular about that … it also had been the subject of discussion for some considerable time. Once again, the notice given had been short … and I already had a number of prior engagements for the weekend, which I couldn’t rearrange, so I couldn’t go. As a result I sent my apologies.
I had a similar problem yesterday … I not only had appointments with the doctor, I had two other meetings arranged for the same day which I couldn’t put off and so, as a result, I once again had to send my apologies.
I couldn’t help wondering … Where’s the fire? … why the inordinate rush … such meetings take time to arrange so why did we were we given such short notice? Why was I expected to drop everything at a moment’s notice
To make matters worse, during the course of the day I not only received a second invitation which was marked “Urgent” and requested that I confirm my participation … but later during the afternoon I also received a phone call asking if I would participate – even though I had written a reply saying that I wasn’t sure that I could as I had several prior engagements.
Quite frankly, I could not see any reason why we, the intended participants at what is apparently such an important meeting, should be treated in such a summarily fashion.
Well … to be honest, that’s not 100% true … if I was feeling particularly cynical, I could suggest a few …
Bishkek