Module 10 - Kyrgyz Republic: Benefits of Securing and Registering Land for Rural Development

Since independence in 1991, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic has sought to promote market reform. An important part of this reform is a program to privatize land and secure property rights in land and other immovable property.

By the end of the 1990s, most agricultural land that was once farmed collectively had been broken up into private household farms. Securing formal rights to this land was seen as an essential step towards providing a stable, long-term framework for investment in the land and for land markets to begin functioning efficiently and transparently. The Registration Law was adopted in 1998, and in 1999 the government established the State Agency for Registration of Rights (Gosregister). Based on several existing organizations, the new agency was responsible for registering rights to land and maintaining the land cadastre. The Kyrgyz Land and Real Estate Registration Project was undertaken to assist the government in implementing the new system of registration and carrying out an extensive, systematic registration of properties.

Project Objectives and Description

The project supports the development of markets for land by securing and protecting property rights through a parcel-based title registration system. Specifically, it aims to:

• Increase the productivity and value of land and other real estate.
  
  
• Facilitate the use of property as collateral and reduce transaction costs in title transfer and mortgaging.

The project has utilized pragmatic, low-cost procedures in land parcel surveys and adjudication, drawing upon information on immovable property in existing databases and relying on village and neighborhood community structures in the systematic registration program. The project has two main components:

• It establishes a system for registering rights, including the development of business regulations and processes and the establishment of a nationwide network of Local Registration Offices (LROs) for secure registration of real estate parcels and associated rights. This component handles on-demand (or “sporadic”) registration of rights.
  
  
• It supports an extensive program of systematic registration of rights, covering more than half of the properties in the country.
  

The project focused initially on building upon the 1998 Registration Law to develop registration procedures and on getting the LROs up and running. Cost, affordability, and quality of services were important considerations. The project took advantage of the high education levels and relatively low labor costs in the country to define an efficient, paper-based system for registration. After business processes were tested, automation was introduced in those locations where there was clear market demand for such capability. Automation continues to be introduced in a phased manner consistent with sound business justification.