Imports to Kyrgyzstan account for approximately a quarter of the total consumption of public goods in the republic.
The republic almost completely imports petroleum products, rolled ferrous metals, commercial timber, mineral fertilizers, chemical fibers and synthetic resins, technological equipment for the light, printing, and food industries, mining and mineral processing equipment, tractors, and automobiles.
The basis of imports consists of products from such republics as Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and the People's Republic of China. Our main trading partners have been and remain Russia, Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, and Uzbekistan. In 1992, these countries accounted for 91% of imports, and 92% of our products were supplied to them; in recent years, these figures have been 98% and 90%, respectively. Therefore, our primary task is to continuously maintain and strengthen the established atmosphere of friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation, and mutual assistance with these countries over the past years.
The government's task is to ensure the timeliness and obligation of supplies under clearing exchanges and intergovernmental agreements with its main trading partners. Purchases to service these supplies should be made on a contractual basis, ensuring voluntary participation by enterprises and farms in accepting orders on mutually beneficial terms and mutual responsibility for obligations undertaken. For example, when concluding contracts with agricultural producers, it is necessary to include part of the subsidy in the cost of fuel and lubricants, equipment, spare parts, and fertilizers, providing preferential loans, thereby involving rural producers in fulfilling interstate supplies.
From the above, it follows that for Kyrgyzstan's economic survival, it is necessary to pursue an energetic policy of import substitution.
The goal of this policy is to meet the population's demand for basic food products (bread, sugar, vegetable oil, table salt) and clothing, spare parts, and components for vehicles and agricultural machinery by using local raw materials and organizing their production in domestic enterprises, linking them through cooperative supplies.
The implementation of the import substitution policy allows for saving foreign currency and saturating the domestic market with essential consumer goods and food products. On the other hand, it opens up new job opportunities.
It is necessary to constantly investigate what is cheaper and more profitable: to purchase finished products from abroad or to expand (establish) their production at home, i.e., the criterion should be economic benefit.
In the development of our economy, the effectiveness of import substitution can be very high. The targeted conversion of many enterprises, including former defense factories, to the production of currently imported goods, products, and components will help prevent unemployment and save currency expenditures, which are crucial for the technological rearmament of production.
For example, we could establish the production of porcelain and faience dishes, construction and electrical ceramics from local raw materials by mastering the corresponding advanced technologies, as well as basalt fiber materials and products that are in high demand in the construction industry and manufacturing. There are opportunities in all these areas; all that is needed is a decisive impulse from the government and local state administrations to launch these profitable productions.
However, the strategic goal in many areas is to transition from import substitution to active export immediately. The development of exports should organically combine with import substitution.