News story Towards Green Growth in the Kyrgyz Republic 11 March, 2015, UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative/Kyrgyz Republic Natural assets are fundamental to growth today. It is important to recognize the dual role that natural assets play: they both provide the inputs for marketable goods (timber, fisheries, crops etc.), as well as valuable ecosystem services, including clean air, drinkable water and carbon dioxide absorption. Thus, they contribute to both growth and to the quality of that growth (OECD, 2011a) 1. Although the theme of Green Growth is new to the Kyrgyz Republic, the country has become one of the first countries in Central Asia to test the OECD green growth indicators under the support of UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative. How are we using the natural resources for the economic development? The government of the Kyrgyz Republic put this important question in it’s agenda in the light of the recent initiatives towards sustainable development of the country. Increased attention to the environmental issues requires specific statistical data. The country has made initial steps towards green growth with the adoption of the Green Growth Indicators as part of the wider set of sustainable development indicators. Just on February 19, 2015 the government of the Kyrgyz Republic issued a decree to adopt matrix of indicators to measure the progress towards sustainable development. This is the result of the work of the Ministry of Economy and National Statistics Committee under the support of the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI) and in collaboration with the OECD during 2012-2014. The national experts conducted a detailed analysis of national and sector statistics in line with the OECD five blocks of green growth indicators, including Carbon and Energy Efficiency, Natural assets, Environmental Quality of life, Economic Opportunities and Policy Responses and SocioEconomic Context and Characteristics of Growth. The analysis (1) reviewed the national indicators that are monitored regularly in national and sector statistics; (2) developed indicators-analogues to replace OCED indicators that are not monitored by the national statistics and (3) included additional indicators that are monitored by the national statistics, but not reflected in OECD indicators. The analysis concluded that ‘while not the entire set of OECD green growth indicators can be applied in the Kyrgyz Republic, the country is able to measure more than half of these indicators’. Green Growth Indicators are reviewed in the dynamic for five years during 2008-2012 and included in the annual digest entitled ‘Environment in the Kyrgyz Republic’ published by the National Statistics Committee. What does growth look like in the Kyrgyz Republic today? (a quick glance at Growth Characteristics Indicators as presented in the Environment Protection annual digest of the National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic for the period of 2009-2013. Full digest can be found at www.stat.kg ) GDP growth (in %): 110,9% GDP per capita (in USD): 1 339,5 Poverty: 37% of the population live under poverty levels 2, while 4.5% are under extreme poverty levels Public Expenditure in Remains low at 0,4% of total expenditures of the republican budget or Environment (in %): account only about 0,1% of GDP3. Poverty-Environment links as More than 65 % of the population lives in rural areas a nd 14% out one of the multi-dimensions of the 34% of employed population is occupied in the agricultural 1 OECD, 2013 ‘Why is green growth vital for developing countries?” in Putting Green Growth at the Heart of Development, OECD publishing. 2 Source: National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic 3 National Sustainable Development Strategy of the Kyrgyz Republic 2013-2017
of poverty in the country:
sector, one of the key sectors of the economy. ‘There has been a steady decline in the share of agriculture in the economy – decreasing from 28.7% in 2006 to 17.5% in 2012. Adverse effects of unsustainable agricultural practices is leading to soil erosion, land degradation and overall depletion of natural resources and is negatively affecting agricultural production.4
‘Creation of the first ever integrated system of indicators in the country to assess the green growth in the context of the socio-economic development is in place now, as noted by Mr. Baijumanov, Deputy Head of the National Statistics Committee. The next steps will include monitoring of green growth indicators annually. Ministry of Economy will led the monitoring and produce a report annually on the progress of achieving the target indicators. The first results of measuring the progress is to come by April 2016. UNDP-UNEP PEI will continue supporting the Ministry of Economy, National Statistics Committee and other key partners in their initiatives towards green growth.
4 Third Report on Progress Towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Kyrgyz Republic.