The European Court of Human Rights has begun hearing a case against Macedonia over the alleged rendition of a German citizen that took place in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks, theAssociated Press reports. Khaled El-Masri, a car salesman of Lebanese descent, has said he was kidnapped while in Macedonia in 2003 before being flown to Afghanistan. There, he says he was subjected to several months of interrogation, during which he was tortured at a clandestine CIA-run prison. The CIA then apparently realized it had taken the wrong man in a case of mistaken identify and dumped him in a remote part of Albania.

El-Masri turned to the court in Strasbourg after previous legal efforts in Germany, Macedonia, and the United States proved unsuccessful. He has sued Macedonia, claiming his fundamental rights to liberty and freedom from torture had been violated, the Irish Timesreports. The newspaper says this is the first case heard by the court related to the U.S. rendition program but that additional cases against other countries also allegedly complicit in renditions (including Lithuania and Poland) are expected.

Skopje denies involvement in the alleged rendition, though el-Masri has repeatedly claimed that the country’s police held him for three weeks in a Skopje hotel before handing him over to the CIA, according to Deutsche Welle.

Kim Eun-sun is a woman from North Korea who fled her native country and went to China after paying a woman to help her get into the country, only to discover that she was sold off.

Kim Eun-sun is like thousands of women who fled North Korea and made it into China. Eun-sun paid a woman to help her get into China but she ended up being sold to a farmer in China who wanted a wife.

According to the Christian Monitor, Kim eventually escaped from the farmer. Kim said that many women go to China and they do not know exactly what they are getting themselves into. Kim went onto say that women are quietly and secretly sold in China.

According to Alaska Dispatch, Kim was caught by Chinese police and sent right back to North Korea. She ended up fleeing North Korea to China again and she and her family made it to Mongolia. Mongolian soldiers found them and they were brought to the South Korean Embassy over in Ulan Bator. The group was then sent to Seoul.

Kim is now a senior in college here and she has eight months of English-language training as well as a semester of study in psychology at a university in the United States, thanks to a US government grant. Wherever she goes she talks about how women in North Korea are suffering.

The director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights is Kim-Sang-hun and she says that around 20,000 women from North Korea are currently entrapped over in China. She said that many people would view it as a form of slavery. Sang-hun went onto say that many of the women end up going into the sex trade against their will.

Women defectors usually choose from a variety of options such as being forced to get married, working as a hostess in karaoke bars or going to the forbidding mountains where food and shelter can be hard to come by.

There is no accurate way of counting how many North Koreans, men and women, are living in China but 100,000 to 200,000 is the estimated guess.

“The Philippines is a very digital nation,” said Hong Kong-based CNN anchor and correspondent Anna Coren during a recent interview at the Shangri-La Makati.

She elaborated on ways that the network continues to stay competitive and accessible via a variety of platforms, and how Filipinos can get the latest news from the media outlet.

“People here are tech-savvy and social media-savvy,” she said. “CNN is very interactive. We have the official website (cnn.com). We have iReport, which is big now in “Eye On” coverage. We invite people in the Philippines and people who have traveled to the country to send in their stories. And people here can follow us on Twitter.”

Coren is in the country for CNN’s weeklong “Eye On the Philippines,” focusing on different aspects of Filipino life and culture. The live reports started Monday; several portions and interviews are airing this week.

Cooperative

Previously involved in “Eye On Thailand” and “Eye On Mongolia,” Coren is intrigued by Asia’s radically different cultures. “[‘Eye On,’] offers viewers an in-depth look at a country and its people.”

Coren enthused that people had been generally cooperative during her “Eye On” visits. She described Filipinos as “hospitable and warm,” and the country as a “place [with] so much potential.”

“There’s foreign investment coming in, which is why the world is taking notice of the Philippines. That’s also why CNN is focusing on your country,” Coren said.

Coren started as a reporter and presenter in Australia, and has been with CNN since 2008. “I certainly have an affinity with this region,” she revealed. “Coming to CNN is certainly stepping up. It’s a global news organization, so that’s where my interest lies, and I feel very much at home at CNN. Asia is important; it’s becoming a place that the rest of the world is watching.”

Chat with Charice

She interviewed, and was impressed by, Filipino singer Charice Pempengco last year. “Charice was fantastic,” Coren gushed. “She’s a pocket rocket—she’s amazing! She’s a beautiful girl. What a voice! She’s certainly a great export.”

Last week, Coren interviewed President Aquino for “Talk Asia,” airing on Friday. “He was very open and generous with his time,” she said. “He went through a range of subjects—the economy, corruption, poverty, contraception, his family. We covered it all. We certainly grilled him on certain points!”

According to the anchor, “Eye On” coverage’s and reports are seen in about 280 million households. A 10-member CNN team is currently in the country, covering different stories.

“Our focus is on business, the economy, politics, culture, the whole gamut. One of the stories is, ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines.’ That’s a great government initiative. Another is the fact that the Philippines has become the call center capital of the world. And my colleague Andrew Stevens interviewed the Zobel de Ayala brothers.”

Coren noted that her visits across Asia have exposed her to disparate people with universal desires: “At the end of the day, everyone’s pretty much the same. They want the same things—a roof over your head, better quality of life.”

Live reports air daily until May 4 (7 a.m.) on “World Report.” “Eye On The Philippines” airs

May 4 (11 p.m.),

May 5 (6 p.m., 11:30 p.m.) and May 6 (8:30 a.m.). “Talk Asia: Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala” airs May 3 (12:30 p.m.); “Talk Asia: President Benigno S. Aquino III,” May 4 (5:30 p.m.), May 5 (8 p.m.), May 6 (6:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.), May 7 (8:30 p.m.),

May 8 (3:30 p.m.) and May 10 (12:30 p.m.).

The survey by The Asia Society used data from the United Nations, the Economic Forum and other sources to determine women’s status in health, education, economic activity and political leadership in the region.

It found the gender gap was narrowest and women’s leadership strongest in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.

On the other end of spectrum are India, Pakistan, Nepal, South Korea and Cambodia.

The report’s author, Professor Astrid S.Tuminez, from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public policy in Singapore, says if Asia doesn’t embrace its female population in the workplace, many of its achievements could be put in peril.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Professor Astrid S. Tuminez, author of report from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore

TUMINEZ: Ok so if you look at closing the gender gap for example the countries that perform the best, you have New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia, as well as Sri Lanka and Mongolia. And if you look at certain parameters such as women in senior management, and women CEOs, the percentages, you have countries like Singapore and Thailand also joining some of the top performers. And then as far as women’s participation in the workforce, countries like China and others in East Asia have a very high rate of women’s participation. The issue of course is whether participation is of high quality, i.e. are these jobs secure, can they move up the management ranks, are they paid well and so on. The losers sadly most of them are the South Asian countries. So Pakistan, Nepal, India tend to perform very poorly on practically all parameters, except in one, there are a number of women leaders in sub national government. And that’s primarily because these countries have had quotas, they mandate that a certain percentage of women for example should have seats in local village councils. Asia as a whole also does very well in having heads of state who are women, so more than any other region in the world, Asia has had more heads of state.

COCHRANE: Interesting that you say that a lot of the countries that aren’t doing so well in terms of what you’re describing are from South Asia, and then you’ve got Sri Lanka that is doing quite well. What is it that Sri Lanka’s doing differently to encourage and foster women’s participation and women’s leadership?

TUMINEZ: Sri Lanka actually it’s a bit mixed, so when you say Sri Lanka is doing well, that’s on the parameters of closing the gender gap, not in terms of leadership as a whole.

COCHRANE: So can you explain what that means then closing the gender gap?

TUMINEZ: Closing the gender gap means basically that you’re looking at parameters such as educational attainment, political empowerment, health and education and you’re asking are resources spent more or less equally towards boys and girls and towards men and women? So that’s just it, you’re not measuring exactly the outcomes yet, it’s just that there are resources being divided more or less equally, how are they distributed between the genders. So if you look at a country like Sri Lanka and then you break it down, the performance will be quite mixed. And then on leadership, again looking at the public sector, private sector and then even in NGOs, and NGOs the data unfortunately has not been systematically gathered or collected yet, so the performances will be mixed. The countries that perform worst, if you look at India and Pakistan there are so many limitations to women. So for example six out of ten women in India don’t even try to get a job or go to work, marriage, but in Sri Lanka that’s slighty better. And then you also have the sex ratio issue where in India there’s a very high rate of selective foeticide against girl babies. That’s been facilitated obviously by technology and other things but when you have factors like that it creates a pathway that’s very difficult for girls and women from the very beginning because of how they’re valued and how they’re perceived.

COCHRANE: What about some of the lessons that can perhaps be drawn from this study? What are some of the things that the countries who are promoting women’s participation in the workforce and equality for women in the workforce, what are some of the things that they’re doing well at a policy level or on a legislation level?

TUMINEZ: Ok so the first lesson is that I will just say countries in Asia can no longer afford really to ignore their women and not help them move through the ranks because there’s a talent crunch going on in Asia, as many as 45 per cent of employers in Asia Pacific report having difficulty finding employees because there’s not enough talent so you can’t afford to ignore the women. Now on the policy front one of the arguments in the report is that affirmative action helps because it’s the quickest way to increase the representation of women, and does not hurt efficiency. So the counter argument is that it makes people judge women and say they’re just there because of affirmative action. So what you can do to address that is make affirmative action limited let’s say to ten years. The other lesson to be drawn is that rich countries such as Japan and South Korea, even though they have the highest human development it’s really quite interesting to observe that in terms of women’s leadership they have some of the lowest indicators and they also have some of the highest rates of drop-out between the middle level of management to the senior level of management. So these countries again because they’ve got ageing populations they need talent, they can ill-afford if they want to keep growing and they want to meet the needs of their societies, they have to promote the women and help them so that they persevere in their careers and are able to fulfill dual roles as professionals as well as mothers and wives.

The 2 billion women living in Asia are still paid less than men for similar work and are extremely underrepresented in top leadership positions, even in wealthy countries such as Japan, according to a report issued Thursday.

The Asia Society survey on women’s status in health, education, economic activity and political leadership urges improvements to ensure the region benefits fully from its underused pool of human talent.

While the status of women varies widely from country to country from one category to the next, overall, “to continue in this direction would put in peril Asia’s many achievements,” said the report, compiled by Astrid S. Tuminez, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Limits on female employment cost the region $89 billion a year in terms of lost productivity and human resources, the report said, citing United Nations data.

Overall, based on various measures _ the report also uses data from The Economic Forum and other sources _ the gender gap was narrowest and women’s leadership strongest in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.

The gap was widest in Pakistan, Nepal, India, South Korea and Cambodia.

“Some economies in Asia with the highest human development rankings also perform most poorly in some measures of women’s leadership,” it said, referring specifically to Japan and South Korea.

Asia leads the world in terms of the number of years women have governed as heads of state, and currently has four women leaders. But the report attributes that to dynastic traditions calling for women to take over from fathers, husbands or sons when they die, are imprisoned or killed.

It said the problem begins before birth, with sex-selective abortions and infanticide due to a preference for sons in countries such as China and India.

It said the bias in favor of sons means that girls in some countries receive poorer medical care, nutrition and education than boys, especially in developing countries.

The discrepancy in schooling leaves the majority of women in four Asian nations illiterate, the report said, citing literacy rates of 10 percent in Bhutan, 16 percent in Pakistan, 25 percent in Nepal and 31 percent in Bangladesh.

Although women live longer in Asian nations as in other regions, such disadvantages affect health and earning power over a lifetime, the report noted.

“From the very start, girls in Asia face significant obstacles to fulfilling their human potential, in general, and their potential for leadership, in particular,” Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai said in introducing the report.

Pay gaps remain significant, the report said, with the ratio of women’s pay to men’s lowest in South Korea, at 51 percent, below that of Nepal, Bangladesh and China. Japan’s was not much better, at 60 percent.

The narrowest gaps, the report found, were in Malaysia and Singapore, at 81 percent, and Mongolia and Thailand, at just under 80 percent. Globally, women’s pay is 20 percent to 30 percent less than men’s, on average.

As far as women in senior corporate positions, Japan came in worst in the region with just 5 percent of those postions held by women.

Thailand and the Philippines ranked highest in this regard, with women holding 39 percent of senior level positions, while India came in at 14 percent and China 25 percent, it said, citing a survey by human resources consultancy Grant Thornton International.

The percentage of women on corporate boards was much lower, with Japan at 0.9 percent, South Korea at 1.9 percent and China at 8.5 percent. New Zealand ranked highest, at 9.3 percent. The global average is 21 percent, down from 24 percent in 2009, the report said.

The report suggests specific countermeasures, such as providing more mentoring, more generous parental leaves, childcare and elder care, and gender-equal retirement packages would encourage women to persevere with their careers to top management positions.

But more fundamentally, it urges greater education aimed at valuing girls and women on a par with boys and men, steps to end sex selective abortions and improvement in women’s property rights and other protections to ensure they can contribute fully to society.

The Asia Society, based in New York, is a global non-profit organization seeking to promote closer ties between Asia and the West through arts, education, policy and business outreach.

Elaine Kurtenbach

SHANGHAI (AP) — The 2 billion women living in Asia are still paid less than men for similar work and are extremely underrepresented in top leadership positions, even in wealthy countries such as Japan, according to a report issued Thursday.

The Asia Society survey on women’s status in health, education, economic activity and political leadership urges improvements to ensure the region benefits fully from its underused pool of human talent.

While the status of women varies widely from country to country from one category to the next, overall, “to continue in this direction would put in peril Asia’s many achievements,” said the report, compiled by Astrid S. Tuminez, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Limits on female employment cost the region $89 billion a year in terms of lost productivity and human resources, the report said, citing United Nations data.

Overall, based on various measures — the report also uses data from The Economic Forum and other sources — the gender gap was narrowest and women’s leadership strongest in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.

The gap was widest in Pakistan, Nepal, India, South Korea and Cambodia.

“Some economies in Asia with the highest human development rankings also perform most poorly in some measures of women’s leadership,” it said, referring specifically to Japan and South Korea.

Asia leads the world in terms of the number of years women have governed as heads of state, and currently has four women leaders. But the report attributes that to dynastic traditions calling for women to take over from fathers, husbands or sons when they die, are imprisoned or killed.

It said the problem begins before birth, with sex-selective abortions and infanticide due to a preference for sons in countries such as China and India.

It said the bias in favor of sons means that girls in some countries receive poorer medical care, nutrition and education than boys, especially in developing countries.

The discrepancy in schooling leaves the majority of women in four Asian nations illiterate, the report said, citing literacy rates of 10 percent in Bhutan, 16 percent in Pakistan, 25 percent in Nepal and 31 percent in Bangladesh.

Although women live longer in Asian nations as in other regions, such disadvantages affect health and earning power over a lifetime, the report noted.

“From the very start, girls in Asia face significant obstacles to fulfilling their human potential, in general, and their potential for leadership, in particular,” Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai said in introducing the report.

Pay gaps remain significant, the report said, with the ratio of women’s pay to men’s lowest in South Korea, at 51 percent, below that of Nepal, Bangladesh and China. Japan’s was not much better, at 60 percent.

The narrowest gaps, the report found, were in Malaysia and Singapore, at 81 percent, and Mongolia and Thailand, at just under 80 percent. Globally, women’s pay is 20 percent to 30 percent less than men’s, on average.

As far as women in senior corporate positions, Japan came in worst in the region with just 5 percent of those postions held by women.

Thailand and the Philippines ranked highest in this regard, with women holding 39 percent of senior level positions, while India came in at 14 percent and China 25 percent, it said, citing a survey by human resources consultancy Grant Thornton International.

The percentage of women on corporate boards was much lower, with Japan at 0.9 percent, South Korea at 1.9 percent and China at 8.5 percent. New Zealand ranked highest, at 9.3 percent. The global average is 21 percent, down from 24 percent in 2009, the report said.

The report suggests specific countermeasures, such as providing more mentoring, more generous parental leaves, childcare and elder care, and gender-equal retirement packages would encourage women to persevere with their careers to top management positions.

But more fundamentally, it urges greater education aimed at valuing girls and women on a par with boys and men, steps to end sex selective abortions and improvement in women’s property rights and other protections to ensure they can contribute fully to society.

The Asia Society, based in New York, is a global non-profit organization seeking to promote closer ties between Asia and the West through arts, education, policy and business outreach.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ Mongolia regrets that a missile was launched by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) despite the warning of the international community and related resolutions of the UN Security Council.

It has been said in a statement, released by Mongolia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday.

A nuclear weapon-free Mongolia affirmes its aspiration to keep peace and stability in the Korean peninsula, and considers that the N.Kprea’s step affects the peace and stability in the Northeast Asia and may wield an influence on resuming of the Six-Party Talks, it says.

Mongolia urges the DPRK to avoid any actions that may cause an instability in the region and to abide by the UN Security Council’s resolutions.

B.Khuder

AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.

Here, Dr Craig Mark – currently based in Japan – argues that with all the talk of China, we are at risk of ignoring more democratic powers in Asia’s north.

Among all the attention given to Australia’s relationship with China, good relations with the other states of Northeast Asia are no less important.

Japan and South Korea are Australia’s next largest export markets, and unlike China, share Australia’s democratic political values. And the oft-overlooked Mongolia, experiencing a resource boom of its own, will be of great importance as we enter the Asian century.

I took one introductory international relations class my freshman year of college. It was painfully dry; I spent lectures slouching in back, admiring my combat boots and writing bad poetry. After that one foray into the formal study of international relations, fully half of the rest of my literary arts major courses were pass/fail creative writing workshops. Before and after, I worked in many countries, involved in various development efforts — but strictly as a “creative writer” or “artistic type.” Essentially, I figured “development” was what humanitarians used to improve human welfare, and “foreign policy” was what governments used to increase power.

I actually bought that there existed such a binary. I had nothing to say about foreign policy because I wasn’t, in my estimation, involved in it.

Then former State Department Policy Planning Director Anne-Marie Slaughter’s provocative piece on collaborative power came out in The Atlantic in late 2011:
Instead of seeking to structure the preferences of others, those who would exercise collaborative power must be demonstrably willing to shift their own views enough to enter into meaningful dialogue with others.

This connective sort of vision, plus Slaughter’s willingness to interact over Twitter with citizens curious about foreign policy, is probably part of why she has over 28,000 followers. I thanked her once for this kindness to “regular people.” “You’re most welcome,” she tweeted. “FP is all ABOUT the people!”

Uh…it is?

Folks, I was actually blown away by this. After eleven years in development in nearly as many countries, I managed not to connect those particular dots. The experience of the artist is the experience of the body: each place I went, I saw, heard, and felt things, then wrote them down. I was a development dilettante. If you asked me for the history or the facts in depth about any of these places, I either never knew them or forgot them. What “discourse-friendly” things I did notice and say, I did so largely after the fact.

A short survey of examples:

Sustainable forestry in central Russia: I remember first the birches and the 9th-floor Soviet-era apartment I climbed down and up daily, the fish heads on the stairwell. Then I remember the unprecedented stakeholder involvement in community forest zoning initiatives.

Reproductive health in Ecuador: the quilted hillsides I flew through in a truck with female doctors who giggled in a row during lunch break, doctors who created makeshift clinics in cold, distant churches in which to give women their first-ever gynecological exams. Then the effect prenatal care has on mother and infant mortality rates.

Literary translation in Bolivia: the dry, droll wit of socialist poet Vicky Allyón, her thick black hair and the way she moaned about motherhood to her two young adult daughters, her white mop of a dog. Then the great importance of literary translation to the cultural exchange required for international development.

Chinese dissident refugee advocacy and PEN Center formation in Mongolia: endless shots of vodka under an endless tundra sky, mournful throat singing, the polished main square in the capitol of the most sparsely populated country on the planet. Then the roles of China and Russia in Mongolia’s mining industry… and in Mongolia’s refugee policies.

Traveling to the home of an exiled dissident in China, sitting across from his wife, where he would never sit again, while outside agricultural university students held a candlelight vigil on their athletic field, standing in the shape of a heart for the Sichuan earthquake victims. Then I remember that I never studied Chinese politics in depth.

Freedom of expression in Turkey: the Finnish author who joined me on the deck of a boat on the Bosphorous as I watched the lights on the water. I told her I couldn’t seem to escape my own thoughts. “No,” she said gently but emphatically, “Your thoughts are the most wonderful thing — because only you can have them.” Then I remember someone gave a presentation about international copyright.

Founding a theater group for Congolese refugee girls in a Nairobi slum: the girls’ incredible voices, the girls inventing a song on the spot and harmonizing seamlessly without rehearsing or using a single musical instrument. The heart-lift I’d get upon entering the slum’s church compound, finding the girls by following the scraps of song floating above the red tin roofs. Then the importance of safe space for youth in post-conflict zones.

I’ve feared that my failure to acquire a more immediately applicable skill set — the admirable fact-focus and research of a journalist, for example, or the sorely needed medical care a doctor offers — affected negatively what I could offer on the miraculous opportunities I had to be out there. I thought maybe I should know more before going to these places, before coming home and talking about them. But: the term “superpower,” the billiard-ball theory in that terrible international relations textbook? I didn’t connect to them, didn’t fathom their applicability or see them in what I had experienced. Whatever I did know, I concluded, it wasn’t anything about foreign policy.

Then I encountered Slaughter’s idea of collaborative power and was reminded of the speech by Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz at last year’s conference for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs:
I couldn’t read a story, poem, or newspaper where I saw a Dominican kid reflected back in any way. I write to leave mirrors for the future… If a human being grows up in a world without reflections of them, they themselves will grow up to be monsters.

I’ve wondered for months why this idea of collaborative power meant so much to me. I realized: it’s because I can see myself in it. It’s a term I find familiar already, somehow; it’s a framework I can get behind. I’ll leave it to the “discourse-friendly” scholars and seasoned foreign policy veterans to take issue with Slaughter’s position (which they do, and Slaughter welcomes the debate) because frankly, I haven’t studied enough of the facts to use that lexicon instead of it using me. But could the artist’s fidelity to the information of the body, the five senses — the response to the immediate situation based on intuition and not researched theories — offer a kind of perspective on and practice of development work that might well fit the 21st century?

It’s a century wherein we know so little of what comes ahead, so previous frameworks might not be as relevant; it’s one wherein most of what remains of America’s potential for international leadership lies in the portable concept that every human has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This concept is a socially enacted one, a sense of belonging (being seen, perhaps) that we must acknowledge as a central need of humanity today: the young, who comprise nearly 50 percent of the Earth’s population and 90 percent of whom live in the developing world. Perhaps the concept — and Slaughter’s ideas, and Hillary Clinton’s policies, for that matter — are indeed (gasp!) “soft”… but “soft” are the issues that ultimately make or break the international attitude toward America, since they in turn determine who out of that 50 percent will grow up to want to use “hard” things like bombs, guns, and terrorist tactics because they didn’t get stoves, medicine, and schooling. That’s what I’d guess, anyway, but who asked me? I didn’t study this stuff.

Bishkek holds business-forums at a run. Representatives of business circles of Kyrgyzstan pass from one hotel to another to participate in forums and find potential investors in a crowd of Turkish, Mongolian, and Kazakh delegations.

All nations visit us

Recently, business-forums are being organized almost every week. Each event gathers around 200 people and has the same model: solemn presentation of Kyrgyzstan as the country trine for investments, speeches about brotherhood and friendship of peoples, similarity of countries and nations, speeches about common ancestors, history, religion, kaganates and Manas… Overall, all of this is constrained by imagination of a speaker and desire to get investments.

Kyrgyzstan keeps praising its priorities in agriculture, mining and energetics. Besides, business projects are usually one and the same.

Event for Mongolian delegation didn’t become an exception. First, the Minister of Economy and Antitrust Policy Temir Sariev spent much time to explain why it is important to cooperate. Then he put emphasis on similarities of fraternal peoples as well as on internal and external likeness. In the end he expressed a hope that the world would speak about Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia as invaders of the world market not only as capturers of new lands during times of Great Genghis Khan.

Russian language could not have come at a better time. The event was conducted on Russian, the official language of the republic, which is the second native language for fraternal peoples of Mongolia. Many of them studied in the USSR and even in Kirghizia therefore they speak Russian fluently. Organizers didn’t forget to say that bilingualism is sealed by our Constitution.

I love myself for everything

Then a universal presentation took place which provided potential investors and partners with common information about the country which could be found easily in Internet: geographic location, GDP, and inflation. It can be presented without any changes at any business-forum. But what is the reason to spend precious time repeating the same well-known for everyone? Our businessmen know this very well while foreigners are interested in concrete projects and conditions but the main thing for them is guarantees of investments and property security. But it is not considered respectable to pinpoint state guarantees of investments in the country where nationalization won as well as don’t mention rope in the house of a hanged man.

Meanwhile ministers and their assistants speak fine words that Kyrgyzstan will be Eden for investors soon, the republic rolls down in the International Index of Economic Freedom. Thus, Kyrgyzstan slid to 88th rank out of 179 possible losing 5 points as of January 2012. Of course this is better than 124th rank of Moldova, 144th rank of Russia and 153rd rank of Belarus but there are plenty good examples like Kazakhstan (65th rank), Lithuania (23rd) and Estonia (16th).

Experts explain this downfall by significant losses in terms of ownership, government expenditures and freedom of doing business. Political unrest caused instability and uncertainty which slowed down economic development of the country.

“My will of the head of the state will be enough to give security to investors,” the President Almazbek Atambayev said during his visit to Istanbul. In these latter days, authorities show their desire to improve business environment. Law improvements in tax system, mining and reducing number of inspection authorities are welcomed by business circles. But fear to lose business is still strong. After 42 interim government’s decrees on nationalization passed with direct participation of Almazbek Atambayev investors can hardly believe him. 47 private facilities were transferred into ownership of the state out of court and investigation.

Foreign businessmen are attracted by the lowest taxes in Central Asia, cheap electricity and man power. There is something Kyrgyzstan is proud of. If average salary in Russia is close in $700 and in Kazakhstan it is $500 then people agree to get $200 in Kyrgyzstan. However, the Ministry of Economy and Antitrust Policy assures that market culture together with literacy improve in the republic.

Multivector in Kyrgyz way

Probably, multivector in Kyrgyz way is while smiling at someone keeping in mind to bow before others. Wishing to be members of the Customs Union and declaring strategic partnership with Russia the country hasn’t held any forum to attract Russian investors. Authorities don’t feel shy when promising projects in energy sector to both Russia and Turkey. They are so eager to fall between two, three, four stools! But, alas…

“Kyrgyz multivector model has the most significant defect. To be multivector it needs to be interesting for potential partners,” REGNUM News Agency quoted international expert on transport issues Kubat Rakhimov as saying.

“I promise, I swear that I will do all my best”

Despite ardent desire to get foreign capitals gold rivers don’t flood the republic. Potential investors see very well what is destiny of companies who have risked doing business in the republic.

“Businessmen fear corruption and instability in Kyrgyzstan,” the governor of Bursa Province, Shahabettin Harpu, said openly at the Kygryz-Turkish Forum for Trade and Investments. “We are glad to know that some measures against this are taken but it is necessary to make laws working. Businessmen are interested in cooperation but it is important for them to know what risks are.”

“Kyrgyzstan greets Russian capital but money extortion continues on the part of state agencies,” the Russian Ambassador Valentin Vlasov said at the meeting with vice Prime Minister Dzhoomart Otorbaev.

And this truth is thorn in the Cabinet’s side. It seems potential investors guess that they must be ready to execute state functions in Kyrgyzstan which could be financed by the state budget just because “we don’t have means while they have”.

“The country has the most liberal tax and customs legislation. To improve investment climate we promote a complex of reforms aimed at forming favorable business environment, we eradicate administrative hurdles in sphere of investments,” Temir Sariev alluringly told Mongolian delegation.

“The Government of Kyrgyzstan showed it has turned its face to business,” he said at the Kyrgyz-Kazakh business-forum.

And I am so eager to believe the Minister. His initiative to impose excess profit tax for mining companies and offer to Kumtor to construct meat, vegetables, and fruits processing plant as well as Kentor Gold Australian Company which invested $41 million in gold deposit but failed to start up remain outside halls where business forums are being conducted.