Over $1 bln needed to restore Kyrgyzstan - government.

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20/7 Tass 184

ASTANA, July 20 (Itar-Tass) - About one billion dollars are needed to
restore Kyrgyzstan, Kazakh First Deputy Prime Minister Umirzak Shukeyev
said on Tuesday after visiting Bishkek at the head of a working group set
up to implement a program for an economic revival of Kyrgyzstan.
"We spent two days in Bishkek, trying to assess the scope of damage
from the events in April. Our assessments were the same as those of the
World Bank - about one billion dollars will be needed to stabilize the
situation in Kyrgyzstan," the Kazakh official said at a session of the
Kazakh government.
According to Shukeyev, 330 million dollars are needed alone for
financial support of Kyrgyzstan's budget, and another 300 million dollars
are needed to restore wreck in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions. Besides,
Kyrgyzstan makes no preparations for the winter season, and with that in
view "Kazakhstan, as OSCE chairman, intends to take some measures to
support the republic".
Shukeyev informed the session about already prepared government
decrees on coal supplies to the Bishkek thermal power plant and an
emergency supply of construction materials to the Osh and Jalal-Abad
regions.
He added that together with the World Bank Kazakhstan intends to work
out an anti-crisis plan for Kyrgyzstan, within the framework of which easy
loans will be granted by some international financial institutions.
Shukeyev also reminded the session that a special humanitarian fund
under the patronage of the Kazakh president will be set up. Kazakhstan
intends make a contribution of ten million dollars as first instalment to
the fund.
-0-zhe/usn