Kyrgyzstan – 6th in world in subsoil use licensing

Kyrgyzstan takes the 6^th place in the world out of 89 on the level of licensing of subsoil use. Consultant of the Institute of Natural Resources Management Nazgul Kulova voiced such data today.

The index studies how the management of the extractive industry influences the country’s potential in terms of sale of natural resources and disposing of income from their use. The study also includes information on how citizens of the country are provided with information and how they use it, what opportunities they have to conduct a dialogue with the authorities and ensure their accountability, and how well the institutions are responsible for administrative management work.

«Only four out of 89 country assessments have received «good» rating — Norway, Chile, Great Britain and Canada. Other 15 were rated as «satisfactory». But 83 percent of countries in terms of resource management were rated as «weak», «bad» or «very bad». Kyrgyzstan scored 51 points, taking the 38^th place, which is above the average score, but it still belongs to the category of weak countries," Nazgul Kulova said.

On the other hand, Kyrgyzstan occupies only the 65^th place under the sub-component «local impact». This is partly caused by the fact that the final environmental impact assessment (EIA) after public discussions is not published. This requirement is not included in the legislation. Final EIA is also not posted on the public domain.

Kyrgyzstan also has low scores in the fight against corruption (71^st place), the rule of law (65^th place), the effectiveness of government (64^th), political stability (59^th) and quality of the regulatory framework (42^nd place).