President Sadyr Japarov proposed that the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan offer storage services for gold owned by citizens and commercial banks. The president made the suggestion during the opening ceremony of the new National Bank building.
During a tour of the facility, the head of state asked when the country would begin printing its own banknotes. The head of the Presidential Affairs Department, Kanybek Tumanbaev, and National Bank Chairman, Melis Turgunbaev, said that all preparatory work had been completed and that printing of 20- and 50-som banknotes would begin on November 17.
Sadyr Japarov then suggested that the bank provide paid services for storing gold of citizens.
«Now you have your own vault, if someone wants to store gold with you — whether it’s 10 grams or even 1 gram — you can offer such a service. After all, that’s also money,» the president said.
Earlier, during the official ceremony, he reminded attendees that establishing the country’s own monetary system was one of the first steps after Kyrgyzstan gained independence.
«Now we have a vault capable of storing up to 1,000 tons of gold. We will no longer store our gold in foreign banks — on the contrary, we’ll be able to offer such services to other countries,» he said.
Responding to president’s question about whether the National Bank would agree to store a ton of gold for 10 years if requested by another bank, Chairman Melis Turgunbaev said it would.
