Member of Kyrgyz parliament Azimbek Beknazarov suggested paying off the country’s foreign debt by planting opium.

Beknazarov, who is now a member of opposition faction “For reforms”, used to be Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor General.

“To solve this problem [of foreign debt] we need unordinary steps. I know that my suggestion will stir a heated debate. This year Afghanistan announced almost officially that it will increase opium crops. We have to do the same and permit our people to plant opium for a year or two. After that all international organizations will raise havoc and offer themselves to write off out country’s debts,” the deputy said on Wednesday, March 7.

Earlier the parliament of Kyrgyzstan refused to join HIPC program, which presupposes debt write-off for the world’s poorest countries. Kyrgyz deputies did not want to admit that their country is one of the poorest in the world.

The foreign debt of Kyrgyzstan equals about $2 billion. In 2007 servicing payments on the debt will equal about $73 million, of which about $20 million have to be paid out as interest rates.

If the republican authorities agreed to join HIPC program, a greater part of the debt — up to $1 billion — would be written off.

Kyrgyzstan was once one of the world’s largest suppliers of licit opium poppy, and after the Soviet ban on opium poppy cultivation in 1973, illicit cultivation continued.

Popularity: 11% [?]