Business Ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan Robin Ord-Smith expressed concern and doubt about the appropriateness of additional bureaucracy and requirements related to the need for business entities to obtain permits to enter and move around Bishkek. Press service of the organization said.
«While entrepreneurs and businesses should be focused on resuming their activities, maintaining financial stability and jobs, they spend time in hours-long queues, obtaining papers and certificates. This will not lead to the much-needed fast recovery of the country’s economy,» Robin Ord-Smith says.
According to him, the requirement to certify certificates at tax bodies has already led to large crowds at the territorial departments of the State Tax Service.
This contributes to unfavorable sanitary and epidemiological conditions and creates the possibility of spread of the viral infection.
The ability to apply online is a step in the right direction. But in such a difficult time for business, this measure seems insufficient. In the instructions for filling out electronic permits for traveingl around the capital, the criterion No. 6 is mentioned in the list of application refusal criteria: «Refusal of the group to work with materials.»
Earlier, when the passes were issued by the Bishkek Commandant’s Office, this criterion with vague wording served as the basis for numerous denials.
Robin Ord-Smith
«In this regard, a number of business entities addressed the Business Ombudsman with a request to assist in resolving the issue. After many weeks of downtime, entrepreneurs are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to resume economic activity, while the new requirements create additional difficulties and barriers,» he stressed.
The Business Ombudsman calls on the authorized bodies to take all measures to ensure that business entities with permitted activities can engage in business with minimal interference and red-taping in compliance with measures strictly necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The authorized bodies should take further operational measures to increase the transparency and efficiency of issue of permits for commercial organizations operating in Bishkek, create favorable conditions for resumption of entrepreneurial activity up to the soonest complete cancellation of the permitting-pass entry system.
