Kyrgyz Republic
The Kyrgyz Republic hosts a number of emerging resource projects and has made considerable progress in attaining macroeconomic stability in the past decade with an average GDP growth of about five per cent a year since 1996.
A democratic country, it has a stable economy, stable currency and an excellent fiscal regime with low tax rates that include a flat 10 per cent income and corporate tax, and a royalty of five per cent for gold projects. It is a member of the World Trade Organisation and has a free market economy with freedom to transfer funds and exchange currency.
The Kyrgyz Republic covers a significant portion of the Tien Shan gold belt, which is considered to be second only to the Witwatersrand of South Africa in terms of possible global gold endowment.
The Tien Shan is noted for extensive gold mineralisation with numerous world class gold deposits such as Muruntau (inexcess of 100M ounces of gold) in Uzbekistan, and Kumtor (17M ounces ) in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Production and new discoveries from the Tien Shan gold belt have increased since the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991 and are likely to continue on an upward trend given the number of Western companies now exploring within the region.