Leasing four boarding houses in Issyk-Kul to Uzbek investors for 49 years has sparked outrage from social media users in Kyrgyzstan. They note that the lease term of 49 years is too long. According to some of them, it would be more appropriate if it was 5-10 years.
The issue became so acute that President Sadyr Japarov had to give clarifications. In 2016, without the necessary legal elaboration, these pensions, which belonged to Uzbekistan, were requisitioned. The Uzbek side appealed to the international court in Washington and demanded compensation for $65 million in damages. In May 2023, the court ruled that the Kyrgyz side must pay more than $40 million.
“We held talks with the Uzbek side and came to an agreement that we would lease the facilities for 49 years, and they would upgrade them to the level of four or five-star hotels: we have no way to pay them the amount presented,” Zhaparov explained. - The state of these boarding houses today leaves much to be desired: they are so dilapidated that they can already be called a shed. We ourselves will not be able to invest in their modernization in the next 15-20 years, because we have a lot of other critical gaps ...
If you sell these four boarding houses, then no one will buy them even for $4 million, not to mention $40 million. - five-star hotels will take these 5-10 years. Therefore, no state will agree to invest so much money without guarantees that it will pay off its investments.”
All four boarding houses belonged to large enterprises of Uzbekistan back in Soviet times. They were built at the expense of Uzbekistan in agreement with the then government of Kyrgyzstan. Even after gaining independence in 1991 and until 2017, these boarding houses were under the jurisdiction of Uzbekistan. In 2017, the government of Kyrgyzstan announced the full return of the right to these boarding houses. The government of Uzbekistan did not agree with this decision and appealed to the international court in Washington.
With the coming to power of the current president, Sadyr Japarov, processes have been outlined in bilateral relations with Uzbekistan to resolve all contentious issues as soon as possible, including border issues and controversial boarding houses. The final decision to lease four boarding houses in Issyk-Kul - "Golden Sands", "Rohat", "Dilorom" and "Buston" - to Uzbekistan was made at the 10th intergovernmental meeting of the two countries in Cholpon-Ata.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
August 19, 2023