Flash poll: August 26 South Ossetia will be celebrating the fourth anniversary of Russia's recognition of the independence of the Republic. The status of a recognized state has brought new opportunities for economic development of South Ossetia. To what extent, in your opinion, they have been implemented in the past four years?
Gennady Kokoev MP RSO:
First of all, it is obvious the positive role of recognizing the independence of South Ossetia. It is minimized the foreign threat - this is the most important factor, which gives hope for the future growth of our Republic. In addition, a number of trade and economic agreements have been signed between South Ossetia and Russia.
All this is sure to give impetus to the development of the economy. After all, the main thing for economy is the presence of trade area. That means that by the recognition have been realized the political and legal factors for economic growth. As for the concrete results, I have to state the fact that the potential was not realized. There are objective and subjective reasons for that. The effectiveness of the actions of our leadership in the economic field leaves much to be desired. In particular, this applies to both the executive authority and the parliament - the legislative branch of the government, which is responsible for what is happening in the economy. In previous years we have not worked out the concept of economic development; we have not determined the main priorities of economic growth and all our actions in this direction were chaotic. Naturally, this had an impact on our overall results. Meanwhile, to count on some changes for the better, we need to analyze carefully the current state of the economy and its basic parameters, take a clear view of what is our economy as a whole. And on the basis of this analysis, we can identify the problems, set goals, and seek for necessary resources for their implementation.
Economic development - it's not a one-time step; it is very hard work of the whole society, including the president and ending by social workers. Recognition of South Ossetia must contain the real meaning. That means the functioning enterprises, the employed young people, decent wages. Only in this case we can say that our recognition was established.
Marina Dzigoeva, MP, Chairman of the Union of Entrepreneurs of South Ossetia:
Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time during the last four years, certainly, we could achieve more. It was necessary to determine the sources, at the cost of which the Republic was going to live and build, to work out the general regularities of development.
We also have to take into account the public opinion on the ongoing projects, involve the general public in their realization. Every citizen must find his place in the construction and building of our country. Such a system has not been developed for today.
I also think that it is necessary to develop a program for the medium-term perspective and calculate sources of income to form our own budget at least 50%. We should make urgent inventory of our Republic. We also need to eliminate educational gaps and attract our youth to learning the professions, being in demanded in our Republic. I would also like to draw attention to our energy independence, while the available resources allow us to provide ourselves with electricity and, in the future, its export.
Shurvan Kokoev, Deputy Head of the Parliament of South Ossetia:
The first priority for the Republic is an economic model. It is necessary to establish a council of economists to the President and choose the most appropriate program for economic growth. In addition, we should use our natural resources. If we had formed the state budget at least 20% during the three years, it would've been a great achievement. No any state can exist without economy, no matter how much it is provided help. We need to develop our economy; otherwise we do not have the prospects of the growth of our country.
