On May 25 the Institute for Public Policy hosted a round table on “Cooperation between China and Kyrgyzstan after March 24, 2005”.

Speakers of the roundtable were Kadyrbek Sarbaev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Zhang Yannian, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of People’s Republic of China in the Kyrgyz Republic, Jeenbek Kulubaev, Deputy Executive Secretary of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Valentin Bogatyrev, Director of International Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, and Erlan Abdyldaev, Former Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to People’s Republic of China.

Also, Marat Saralinov, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic, Almaz Biybosunov, Director of Public foundation for political research “Project of Future”, and Marat Chanachev, Director of the China Center under the International Institute for Strategic Studies took part in the discussion.

Muratbek Imanaliev, President of IPP moderated the roundtable.

During discussion, participants of the roundtable gave general assessment of bilateral relations before and after the “Tulip Revolution” in Kyrgyzstan and discussed perspectives of political and economic cooperation between the two countries.

According to participants of the roundtable, the problem of formulating priorities in political and economic relations with China is gaining an importance on the eve of official visit of President Kurmanbek Bakiev to China on June 9 and anniversary summit of SCO in Shanghai on June 15.

They also confirmed the low level of political cooperation between the Kyrgyz Republic and China, absence of serious statements on the side of the Kyrgyz government on bilateral relations and a number of international issues.

During the discussion, special attention was paid to the issues of economic cooperation between China and Kyrgyzstan. According to data of National Statistics Committee of Kyrgyzstan, in 2005 the Kyrgyz-Chinese trade turnover amounted to 129 million USD, while Chinese counterparts provide a figure of over 900 million USD. Despite these impressive figures, according to experts, many opportunities in trade and economic relations remain unutilized.

According to participants of the roundtable, another key point in the sphere of economic cooperation of two states is question of successfulness of joint economic projects. As a result of being too politicized and lack of rigorous economic calculations, majority of such projects had failed in past, thus discrediting bilateral relations.

In conclusion, participants of the roundtable expressed their hope that the first state visit of President Bakiev to China would end a prolonged pause in Kyrgyz-Chinese relations and take them to qualitatively new level.

The roundtable transcript will be posted soon.