A ministry for the mining industry is offered to be created in Kyrgyzstan

Almaty. April 25. Silkroadnews – Kyrgyzstan’s government structure shall also include the ministry of mining, the chairman of the central committee of the mining and metallurgy trade union of Kyrgyzstan Eldar Tadzhibaev said, KyrTAG reports.

“The mining and smelting industry provides more than 50% of exports and over 50% of the industrial output, its contribution to the budget of the republic and to the economic and social development of our country as a whole is huge. Yet no one wants to invest in the sector. The exploration sector still gets the minimum amounts from the budget on the residual principle, though in Soviet times there were huge amounts allocated to the exploration, which still allows us to use those very fields at present. It’s the legacy of the Soviet Union, and now, unfortunately, the focus on the industry is quite weak. The mining industry is a cow everyone want to milk and no one wants to feed and care,” E.Tadzhibaev said at the round table “Investment prospects of the mining industry” on Monday.
It proves, he said, there is no single body to manage the industry.

“It shall be the ministry of natural resources or the ministry of the mining industry, the industry needs a single government agency. We have repeatedly appealed to the government, to every new convocation of parliament, with the issue that the government structure shall include the sectoral ministry for the mining industry. Now the industry is being controlled by several government agencies, the ministry of economy is engaged in politics, the general management is carried out by the government, the state agency of geology operates as the executive body, the state environment and technological inspection serves as the supervisory authority, the state agency of environmental protection operates in the field of environment protection, the local authorities are involved in the land allotment, and so on. One industry is being regulated by 7-8 state agencies at least,” said E. Tadzhibaev.
He added that it causes problem arising at nearly every field, in addition the issues get politicized.

“The most recent example, “Eti Bakir Tereksai” company cannot start production activities due to the fact that 55% of the license area are located on lands that belong to the forest fund. Indeed, such lands shall be closed for any industrial activity, yet there is no forest there, it exists only on paper as the paper specifies it relates to the forest fund. Earlier the state agency of environmental protection agreed the deal and sold the mine to the Turkish company that cannot start the operation process. The transformation process in our country lasts for a year at least, and it is almost during a year they are not able to start production activity,” E. Tadzhibaev said.