ADB reviews progress after a decade

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has begun a new credit line for entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan without government guarantees, as a sign of its confidence in the republic's political and economic reforms since independence. Half of the incoming aid to the republic will be grant based. "All the credits being sent to Kyrgyzstan have been given on preferential terms. Now Kyrgyzstan is not the country it used to be 12 years ago. Our main task is poverty alleviation in the country as well as regional cooperation improvement," ADB President Tadao Chino said, while visiting the country recently to review progress. The ADB and Kyrgyzstan have been working together since 1994, with the bank providing US $530 million in aid since then. The funds have been directed to the country's key ministries, along with implementation of 10 social and economic projects. They include developments in agriculture, education, disaster preparedness and improvement of the road linking the capital Bishkek with the second city of Osh, due to be completed in 2005. The bank will also finance the improvement of two other important roads - from the Kazakh commercial capital Almaty to Bishkek and from Bishkek to Kashgar in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. "It will be the largest regional project, which will connect all the countries of Central Asia. This road will become the primary factor of the sustainable social-economic development in the 21st century," President Askar Akayev said. The international financial organisation has also given aid to hundreds of schools and hospitals as well as the printing of more than 4 million text books.