Kyrgyzstan

According to the OECD’s plenary session on fundamental freedoms, repression is taking on new forms in all five countries in the region, extending increasingly into the digital sphere and beyond national borders.

The combined GDP of the region’s five countries has grown by almost 2.5 times over the last eight years, whilst mutual investment has increased 5.6-fold. But even beyond the economic sphere, questions are mounting as to what unites these peoples, what they can achieve together in the face of today’s challenges, and what kind of future they envisage.

Designed on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, it aims to attract massive investment to become a second economic hub outside Bishkek. The ambition is to create a centre with at least 500,000 inhabitants, doubling the population of an area currently only frequented during the tourist season.

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that countries in the region have scores significantly below the average. Progress in Uzbekistan in science subjects, a setback in mathematics in Kazakhstan

At the latest session held in Busan, the modernist buildings of Tashkent and the rock-cut mosques of the Mangistau region in Kazakhstan were added to the list. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan would like to have its only site – the sacred mountain of Sulayman-Too in Osh – removed from the list so that a cable car can be built there.

Relations between Moscow’s eastern neighbours remain largely in limbo, as they seek to reduce their dependence without severing ties with Russia for good. Meanwhile, in Bishkek, Xi Jinping has, yet again, rejected Putin’s call to unblock the ‘Power of Siberia 2’ gas pipeline project.

In recent years, the local authorities have stepped up their efforts to integrate this ethnic group, which numbers around 1,200 families: now that they have been issued with identity documents, the children are attending school and many members of the community are working for the city’s cleaning and gardening companies.

New temperature records have been set in many cities across Central Asia, in some cases exceeding 50 degrees. In this region, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change, roads have warped, power cuts linked to high consumption have occurred, and measures have been put in place to protect those working outdoors.

From Tajikistan to Kazakhstan, thousands of young people are currently studying at colleges and universities opened in recent years by Moscow, where teaching is conducted in Russian. The aim is to make a long-term investment in the new generation, who have no memory of the Soviet era and are increasingly exposed to Western and Chinese influences.

​​Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil facilities are also having repercussions in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with rising prices, a shortage of aviation fuel and growing uncertainty over energy security. Meanwhile, Moscow is seeking supplies from Kazakhstan, which has restricted exports to protect its domestic market.

EU Special Representative Stiprais is calling for an update to cooperation policies that takes account of the increasingly close ties between the countries in the region, which have been highlighted by Kyrgyzstan’s election to the UN Security Council. The “shared” Kambarata hydroelectric power station and the local satellite internet connection system are the flagship projects.

Even during the Soviet era, the region had a unified energy system linking Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Today, the idea of an electricity grid that optimises infrastructure is gaining traction again, given that energy demand in the region could rise by around 40 per cent by 2030.