BISHKEK. Daniyar Ussenov, acting First Deputy Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, has denied information distributed by a number of media that his country had rejected financial aid from Kazakhstan , Kazakhstan Today correspondent reports.

“It is a wrong interpretation of what our Prime Minister said speaking about the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) - that we cannot borrow under the government guarantees,” - he said speaking to journalists.

According to Mr. Ussenov, the aid from Kazakhstan in the amount of $100 million will be transferred to Kyrgyzstan as per an agreement reached by the Presidents of both states.

“Nursultan Nazarbayev himself has offered his money as aid and it is intended for social expenditures and development of mortgage, leasing, and micro-crediting,” - he observed.

At the same time he specified that the final decision about the transfer of $100 million will be made at the talks in Astana on 20 January.

According to Mr. Ussenov, the money will enter the country through local branches of the Kazakhstani banks.

The financial aid from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan was discussed Wednesday, December 20, in Astana at a meeting between Danial Akhmetov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan’s acting First Deputy Prime Minister Daniyar Ussenov.

The HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) is a programme of assistance to the poorest highly indebted countries was designed by the World Bank and the IMF in 1996. It is the first comprehensive attempt at a relief of the debt burden in the poorest and most indebted world countries.

This initiative is a complex mechanism of relieving the foreign debt burden by both the international financial institutions (the World Bank and the IMF), and the borrowing country’s creditors. The participation in this programme is voluntary for both the borrowers and the lenders. 29 countries joined the programme for 10 years.

The foreign debt of Kyrgyzstan is $2.1 billion. This year the republic has paid $50 million, next year it will have to pay $80 million.

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