Friday, August 17, 2012 -
The need to reform the Kyrgyz social security tax system, as well as the need to increase funding for individual entrepreneurs, are some of the problems encountered by Kyrgyz businessmen and businesswomen looking to establish enterprises, a member of the country’s business elite said Friday.
The comments came as Kyrgyzstan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) met with representatives from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Thursday.
“The first two years of the USAID program have shown that there is a need for reform of the regulatory framework,” USAID Program for Local Development program director Mark Grubb said, as quoted by a government report.
Deputy Chairman of the Kyrgyz CCI Nurlan Musuraliev said the local business community agreed that the tax administration needs to be amended for local small businesses to flourish.
“To identify the most pressing issues of business…[the CCI] established a working group for the development of small and medium businesses,” he said. “During the meetings, members of the group agreed on the need to simplify the tax administration.”
Kyrgyzstan – like other Central Asian states – has a very weak private sector and is looking to increase the number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to bolster its floundering economy.