Dordoy Bazaar - History

History

The market is said to date its origin to 1992, its 15th anniversary being celebrated in 2007. In the view of journalists from the neighbouring Uzbekistan, one of the causes for the rise of Bishkek's Dordoy Bazaar was the decline of Uzbekistan's major wholesale markets. After the Uzbek government transferred Tashkent's huge Hippodrome Market under the jurisdiction of their country Ministry of the Interior in 1998, increase police harassment of the traded resulted in Hippodrome's losing its dominant position in the region; after the reconstruction that it underwent in 2002-2003, Hippodrome, which used to have 8,600 trading outlets and 18,000 traders, was succeeded by much smaller Chilanzar goods market with merely 2,540 outlets. A similar story took place in Jizzakh, where in 2006 the authorities closed down the Dunyo Bozori (Uzbek for "World Market") marketplace, which had been set up by Chinese traders, in order to replace it by Abu Sahiy Nur shopping centre built by Lola Karimova. As Uzbekistan's markets declines, purchasing activities to Uzbek buyers have shifted to Kyrgyzstan's Bishkek or Kara-Suu.