Postcard from Bishkek

Tuesday saw the monthly open meeting of the International Business Council, (IBC).  This onbe was sponsored by the OSCE, (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), office in Bishkek and was entitled “Fighting Corruption: Importance of Preventive Measures”. As well as opening speeches from the Chairman of IBC, the Ambassador of the OSCE to Kyrgyzstan […]

Tuesday was the “Ides of March”. The Romans had a very strange calendar until Caesar decided to reform it in 46BC, (adding 46 extra days in order to bring it back into line with the seasons on which it was supposed to be based, and causing chaos and disruption throughout the Roman world).  His reforms, […]

The International Business Council, (IBC), is a business association, which was established in December 2000, whose membership includes a wide range of local and international businesses that have created thousands of jobs and have a combined investment of over one billion USD in the Kyrgyz economy.  The Celestial Mountains Tour Company was one of the […]

Yesterday, December 9th, was designated by the United Nations as “International Anti-corruption Day”, as long ago as in October, 2003, when it passed the United Nations Convention against Corruption. I don’t think it has been well advertised and, to be honest, I almost missed it this year.  The first I knew was when I saw […]

A few years ago, we had an enquiry from a tourist who wanted to come to Kyrgyzstan “to see the apples”. This caught me by surprise. Although I was  aware that we grow a lot of apples here in Kyrgyzstan, I was intrigued as to why someone would want to travel all this way to […]

A week ago, I received an invitation to the regular monthly Open Meeting of the International Business Council, (IBC). Now, I get a lot of correspondence from IBC – after all, I serve on the Management Board, and have done so, (with two short interludes), ever since it’s inception in 2000.  That might change this […]

Following the events of the Easter Revolution, and the eventual resignation of President Bakiev, it might have been assumed that things would settle down and we could all get on with rebuilding our lives, our businesses and society.

Saturday was one of the few days in the year when you wouldn’t have found me in the office.  Well, that’s not quite true -  I arrived, as usual, at six o’clock and spent three hours going through the emails and some of the routine weekend tasks … but at nine o’clock I abandoned the […]

Alistair Cooke, my hero, was keen on two particular sports, and almost every year he would feature these in one, (but just one each year), of his “Letter from America” broadcasts.  These two sports were: Tennis and Golf. Although I am not aficionado of either sport, I knew enough to make sense of whatever he […]

The International Business Council (IBC) was established in December 2000, by a number of companies, (of which the Celestial Mountains Tour Company was one), with the aim of working in partnership with the government of the Kyrgyz Republic and other local and foreign organizations to: promote the common interests of business investors; provide members with […]