Thinking about the economic situation in Central Asia and trying to find out what the differences and similarities between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are, I’ve come to the following conclusions.

While searching the information on Kyrgyzstan’s country profile through websites I came across a catchy description of Kyrgyzstan that said: “No whistles and bells, just a friendly face and some mighty big mountains.”

This description was truly appealing to me as it accurately characterised the people of Kyrgyzstan who, most time, are calm, don’t feel like talking much and take mountains as something kin to themselves.

In Soviet times Kyrgyzstan was always thought of as a country that would never face any kind of break through or anything similar, which happened on March 24, 2005.

I believe that even the Kyrgyz people in the northern part of the republic where I come from didn’t expect any “revolution” would happen in the country.

I was totally surprised that Kyrgyz people could become so active. I believed that the country had been slowly decaying and nothing could stop it’s decline.

But it appeared that the southerners had some power to “kick start” the process and events in Kyrgyzstan began to gather speed and size.

Trying to understand why the third “revolution” actually erupted in this former Soviet republic, one can definitely conclude that people were not satisfied with life they had.

Thus the main problem is the economic situation of the countries.

In the Soviet era, Kyrgyzstan’s economy was tightly connected with Russia’s and whatever enterprises and businesses the country had were dependent on those ties.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Kyrgyzstan is a “poor, mountainous country with predominantly agricultural economy.

It is true that the country is landlocked and about 95% mountainous, with population concentrations in valleys in Chui, Talas and Osh regions.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, the level of industrial activity fell dramatically, leaving only the agricultural sector as a source of survival for many people.

Now after political incentives have started to provide the impetus for building a productive economy, it is still not so clear exactly what steps need to be taken to make an economic breakthrough.

Should we continue to develop the agricultural sector or shift to the mining and extraction of ores and minerals, which are believed to be abundant.

According to the CIA World Book Kyrgyzstan exports such commodities as gold, mercury, uranium, natural gas and hydroelectric power.

On the other hand, the country’s agricultural sector also produces cotton, wool and meat.

Whilst an estimated 40% of the population live below the poverty line, confusion reigns about the country’s poor economic standing and, more importantly, what to do about it.

“Tourism might help. Mountaineers are looking for a new and exotic location and could bring a lot of money to the country,” says Jonathan Barth, an American photographer who visited Kyrgyzstan between 1995-1997.

I remember talks amongst Kyrgyz people under now ex-president Akaev that Kyrgyzstan is a second Switzerland in terms of nature and the mountainous environment that we have. But not, unfortunately the positive economic situation. So the question is how to make progress and how best to start?

Jipara Ibrayeva, graduate student at KIMEP and citizen of Kyrgyzstan says: “The country should launch its economic priorities in a few directions, that is electric power, gold mining sector and tourism.”