Helvetistan
Switzerland has been engaged in Central Asia since the region’s republics gained independence in 1991.
In 1992 Switzerland formed a voting block at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The group includes Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan and is known as “Helvetistan”.
The Swiss government’s aid agency and the economics ministry spent some SFr50 million ($41 million) in Central Asia during 2003.
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