Warren Coats

Fsu Warren Coats

When the Soviet Union was dissolved, the branches of Gosbank, the central bank of the Soviet Union, in the fifteen newly independent republics became the central banks of the new republics. The International Monetary Fund launched a major Technical Assistance program in 1992 to help them develop the capacity to manage their monetary and financial systems for market economies. Dr. Warren Coats led the IMF missions to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and later Moldova. The people and legacy institutions of central Asia were totally unknown to Dr. Coats and his teams. His adventures in getting to know them and helping them transform into market-based institutions spell out a fascinating story. In this autobiographical account of his travels to central Asia from 1992-5, Dr. Coats shares his wonder at these "new" faraway lands and their people, who were as curious of him and his team as he was of them. He describes the challenge of understanding the existing institutions and systems he was to help them transform and the social and cultural manners in which business and socializing were conducted. His account includes the important meeting in Tashkent in May 1992 of all FSU central bank governors to discuss whether to continue using the Soviet, now Russian, ruble or to introduce their own currencies, and the subsequent introduction of the Kyrgyz som in May 1993. The book is dedicated to Kemelbek Nanaev, the governor of the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic, with whom he developed a strong friendship.