South Caucasus and Central Asia - The Belt and Road Initiative : Kyrgyz Republic Country Case Study
The Kyrgyz economy has been, since its earliest days, the most liberal and open among Central Asian countries resulting in an atypical structural transformation with limited productivity growth. It was the first Central Asian country to become a WT...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/195641593500452028/South-Caucasus-and-Central-Asia-The-Belt-and-Road-Initiative-Kyrgyz-Republic-Country-Case-Study http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34118 |
| Summary: | The Kyrgyz economy has been, since its
earliest days, the most liberal and open among Central Asian
countries resulting in an atypical structural transformation
with limited productivity growth. It was the first Central
Asian country to become a WTO member in 1998 and its trade
share in GDP is the highest in the region. This is largely
due to the flourishing cross-border trade with Kyrgyz
Republic’s large markets, Dordoi and Kara-Su, intermediating
large volumes of goods: importing goods through both formal
and informal trade systems, mainly from China, and
re-exporting (in few cases with some value-addition) most of
that to other economies in the region. It has highly
entrepreneurial traders and a logistics-system that caters
well to this large ‘entrepot’ trade. Agriculture and light
manufacturing have contributed to its exports. This note
assesses the potential impact of BRI over connectivity and
the Kazakh economy. It looks at how, if fully implemented
globally, the BRI is expected to achieve better transport
connections and greater economic integration of
participating BRI countries, discusses improvements in
Kazakhstan’s cross-border transport, electricity and ICT
infrastructure to-date, and the potential impact of the
completion of BRI transport projects on lowering Kazakh
shipment time. It further looks at the likely economic
impact of BRI reductions in shipment time on exports, FDI
and GDP, the within country regional distribution of that
impact and how complementary polices can enhance the
positive impact and reduce regional inequity. Finally, it
also examines the fiscal risk of scaling-up investment in
BRI projects in the coming years without undermining
medium-term debt sustainability. |
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