The Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyzstan sent letters to all bilateral creditors on restructuring the external debt of Kyrgyzstan by converting it and sending the country's obligations to implement projects on environmental protection, adaptation to climate change and other areas, the Akchabar portal reports, citing the head of the Public Debt Department of the Ministry of Finance Umutzhan Amanbayeva.
The task of exchanging external debt for "green" projects was set by the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov.
The list of creditors who received letters on the conversion of external debt includes France, Japan, Germany, Korea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Amanbayev told the portal. The total amount of Kyrgyzstan's obligations to these countries as of today through bilateral financing is $394.92 million.
So far, the Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyzstan has not yet received written consent from the aforementioned creditors to restructure the debt, Amanbaev said. However, there are positive signals at the level of embassy staff. The Deputy Minister of Finance in France met with the Secretary General of the Paris Club, there are also positive developments there. “After we get consent from the creditors, we will move on to discussing specific projects with them,” Amanbaev assured.
The external debt of Kyrgyzstan at the beginning of 2023 amounted to $4.6 billion, of which $1.7 billion is a loan from the Chinese Ineximbank.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
March 28, 2023