Paper abstract:

Recent increased interest in the economic institutions with which the economists and international organisations try to explain the differences in the economic growth levels of the developing countries stress on the security of property rights. The absence of the long-term and stable political structures in governments like Kyrgyzstan, which could not create the right economic environment for security of the property rights might have, on the other hand, created other market institutions, such as business associations. There is increasing evidence about the advantages of these institutions from collective bargaining power to information flow among the business networks, which can lead to higher entrepreneurship and innovation. In Kyrgyzstan, increasingly several laws and government programmes are being designed followed by the lobbying from the business associations or even being developed together with them. Based on the interviews with 22 representatives of public and private sector actors, this qualitative study analyses the business associations from the institutional perspective to identify their weight in decision-making process, and they are changing the environment the business operate in. This study will also attempt at addressing the question of why these institutions could emerge and develop in Kyrgyzstan more than in other Central Asian countries.