Agriculture and Agro-Industry Sector in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Macroeconomic Indicator

Before the Soviet Union was disintegrated and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was formulated, the region was a unified market and an integrated production and trading network under the Soviet economic system, including products of agriculture and agro-industry sector. In the region, employment, income and social indicators were broadly average level, and poverty was virtually unknown. After the Soviet Union disintegration, however, national borders and import controls were created, converting these countries into small, segmented market economies with limited growth potential.

Table 1. Macroeconomic Indicators of Selected CIS Countries (Year 2003)

	Kazakhstan	Uzbekistan	Mongolia	Kyrgyz Rep.	Tajikistan
Total Population (million)	14.91	25.7	2.5	5.0	6.6
% of Urban Population	56.6	36.5	53.4	34.8	26.5
Employed (million) - Agriculture and Forestry - Industry - Others	7.0 2.4 0.9 3.7	9.5 3.0 1.2 5.3	0.9 0.4 0.1 0.4	1.8 0.9 0.2 0.7	1.9 1.3 0.1 0.5
Unemployed (million)	0.7	0.4	0.03	0.2	0.05
Employment rate (%)	8.8	29.4*	3.5	8.6	2.4
GDP (current US$)	29.7 bill	9.9 bill	1.3 bill	1.9 bill	1.6 bill
% of GDP - Agriculture - Industry - Services	7.9 35.1 57.1	33.1 23.5 43.4	20.1 25.3 54.6	37.2 23.3 39.5	28.2 28.1 43.7

Source: ADB and WB.
*: calculated

Table 1 shows that selected CIS countries are suffering relatively high unemployment rate from limited industrial development compared with agriculture. In most selected CIS countries, especially in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, agriculture is the major industry of providing employment opportunity and considerable share of GDP. At the end of 2003, average per capita incomes of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz republic, and Tajikistan were less than US$ 400, which is below the average per capita incomes of South Asia ($460) and sub-Saharan Africa ($450). Average per capita incomes of Mongolia and Kazakhstan recorded about US$ 457 and US$ 1,300 respectively.

Kazakhstan is the biggest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) followed by Mongolia and Uzbekistan among selected CIS countries. The economies of Mongolia and Tajikistan rely on import and export of goods and services. This indicates that the countries' domestic market is still weak.

Table 2. Trade and Finance Indicators of Selected CIS Countries (Year 2003)

	Kazakhstan	Uzbekistan	Mongolia	Kyrgyz Rep.	Tajikistan
Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)	50.4	36.7	67.6	38.0	60.0
Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)	44.2	29.6	53.4	34.8	26.5
Foreign direct investment (US$)	2.1 bill.	70.0 mill.	131.5 mill.	45.5 mill.	31.7 mill.
Present value of debt (US$)	23.1 bill.	4.8 bill.	1.1 bill.	1.6 bill.	0.9 bill.
Short-term debt outstanding (current US$)	2.8 bill.	221.0 mill.	285.2 mill	38.7 mill.	81.7 mill.
Aid per capita (current US$)	18.0	7.6	99.7	39.1	22.9

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