TOURISM IN KYRGYZSTAN - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 274

for only 2% of its real value (Kort, 2004). Kupatadze (2010) further men-
tions of a mechanism of “collaboration between politicians and criminals
based on an exchange of various favors” that complicated things further.
As such, anticorruption efforts rarely work and organized crime is on the
rise (Marat, 2010). This is considered to be one of the major reasons why
the original foreign aid and debt relief were sometimes withheld. It was
suggested that loans given for the development of certain industries or
sectors sometimes disappeared and that in certain cases it was actually the
political elites who “siphoned off” them into their own personal accounts
(Djoroev, 2003). 18
Corruption has also been a major problem in Kyrgyzstan's hydro-
power endowments which had already been suffering from problems of
accessibility and reliability of supply due to “the lack of a coherent en-
ergy policy and poor management” (The World Bank, 2005). According
to certain reports, in early 2000s, there was a deeper crisis in Kyrgyzstan's
hydro-energy sector, this time mostly due to “large-scale corruption in the
energy sector that benefit[ed] only the few among the ruling elites, but
caus[ing] the destruction of the sector at large” (Marat, 2010). When Pres-
ident Bakiev privatized KyrgyzGaz, the major hydro-energy site in the
country without any public discussion on the parliamentary scrutiny, most
people believe that “the primary beneficiaries would be the same officials,
not the national economy” (Marat, 2010).
One final point that needs to be taken into account is about the inten-
sive out-migration from Kyrgyzstan, mostly due to the economic prob-
lems such as poverty, low living standards and unemployment (Edilova
and Zhetibaeva, 2008). Some experts suggest that today, “the problem
of migration is one of the most significant issues in Kyrgyzstan” (Dzhu-
maeva, 2008). As of early 2000s, about 11.3% of Kyrgyzstan's working
population was outside their country providing about 10% of the GDP
(Mahnovski et al., 2007). By then, it had already become “a mass phe-
nomenon” for the young people between the ages of 18-35 as well as
low-skilled migrants from the rural southern provinces (Tajibaeva, 2008).
Some experts suggest that in about 15-20 years the country “will face a
situation in which the most basic qualified labor needed to drive national
economy” (Dzhumaeva, 2008).
18 This may have a direct impact on the tourism sector as well. According to a former analyst with the
SNB (Kyrgyz National Security Service), the structure officially in charge of fighting human traf-
ficking would most probably sell protection to legal tourist companies unofficially engaged in human
smuggling (Kupatadze, 2010, 65).