Economic relations between Kyrgyzstan and the European Union are developing

On October 10-12, 2023, Executive Director of the International Business Council Askar Sydykov held a series of productive meetings with European Union institutions in Brussels, including the staff of the European Parliament, European Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships, the European External Action Service, as well as with permanent missions of a number of EU countries.

At the meetings, the IBC head stressed the need to provide assistance to our exporting entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+) when exporting Kyrgyz goods to EU countries without duties.

The GSP+ scheme gives Kyrgyz producers the right to export about 6,200 commodity items to Europe at zero tariff rates. But GSP+ provides only tariff preferences, and the requirements for the quality of goods are imposed on a general basis, according to EU standards.

So far, through GSP+, Kyrgyzstan exports its products to the EU countries only in the amount of about 5 million euros due to various problems, including certification and standardization requirements, logistics and others, which need to be worked on together.

“In order to achieve compliance with European requirements for certification and product quality, our entrepreneurs need technical and advisory assistance from the European Union. Assistance in finding trading partners and increasing the potential of domestic suppliers of goods will also help the business,” says Sydykov.

Therefore, it is very important to increase exports, diversify them and fully use the benefits of GSP+, which are given to only nine countries in the world as recognition of them as democratic states with the rule of law and protection of human rights. Among them, only Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan represent the Central Asian region.

At meetings with representatives of the European External Action Service, the IBC head also emphasized the importance of organizing trade missions and mutual visits of delegations from the business communities of the EU and Kyrgyzstan.

“Direct contacts with businesses in different countries significantly intensify not only economic relations, but also relations between our countries as a whole. I am glad to note that over the past few years the number of visits of EU business delegations to Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries has increased significantly,” said Sydykov.

With permanent missions from eight European Union countries, including Sweden, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland, there was a discussion on expanding bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

One of the key topics of discussion was respect for democracy and human rights.

[b]“It is very important for us to maintain the position of Kyrgyzstan as an advanced democratic country in Central Asia and to increase this spirit of freedom, the rule of law and democratic values in our state,” the IBC head said.[/b]

Meetings of human rights organizations also took place, and further cooperation at various levels is planned.