Kyrgyzstan and China are set to create a new e-commerce platform using Kyrgyz Post’s network to deliver orders across the country. For Kyrgyz businesses, the project promises access to foreign buyers, although it remains unclear how the platform’s export component will work.
The agreement was signed on August 28 by state-owned Kyrgyz Post and China’s Kashgar Fengxin Trading Co., Ltd. at the Kyrgyz-Chinese Investment Forum in Bishkek. The platform is expected to integrate with the existing postal and logistics infrastructure. The project also includes digital services and content using artificial intelligence technologies. That said, details were light, and the announcement gave no launch date, cost, or financing terms.
For Kyrgyz Post, the project is a continuation of efforts to transform a traditional postal operator into infrastructure for online commerce. The company already provides services linked to Ozon – its website, for example, features a dedicated delivery calculator for the Russian marketplace. The new platform is expected to use the existing network of postal and logistics facilities for nationwide delivery.
The sector itself is growing rapidly. According to Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Adylbek Kasymaliev, Kyrgyzstan’s domestic e-commerce market was estimated at $525 million in 2025, about 15% more than a year earlier. In the first half of the year alone, around one million online purchases were made worth 1.7 billion soms ($19.4 million).
At the same time, a significant share of e-commerce is already linked to foreign platforms. Russian marketplaces Wildberries and Ozon operate in Kyrgyzstan, while Chinese platforms Taobao and Alibaba are popular, and Temu is also available to Kyrgyz consumers. Amazon and eBay are not fully available in the country.
For Kyrgyzstan, the reverse flow – selling its own goods abroad – is therefore of particular interest. Kyrgyz Post specifically points to this opportunity, saying the new platform should help local entrepreneurs promote their products and expand sales opportunities in foreign markets. The operator has not yet specified which countries will be accessible to sellers or whether they will gain direct access to Chinese consumers.
This is not Kyrgyzstan’s first attempt to create dedicated infrastructure for cross-border e-commerce. The government, together with the United Nations Development Programme, has been working on at regulatory framework for an E-commerce Park, intended to support companies operating in the sector. Separately, the government says a preferential tax regime has been introduced for e-commerce participants, with a tax of 2% of turnover and exemptions from VAT, income tax, and sales tax.
The partnership with the Chinese company comes amid a broader shift in Kyrgyzstan’s economic relationship with Beijing. According to the Kyrgyz government, direct investment from China totaled $1.85 billion between 2021 and 2025. At the same forum, officials said they wanted to gradually move beyond a relationship dominated by trade toward joint production, technology localization, and cooperation between Kyrgyz and Chinese companies in third-country markets.
The government also links this broader goal to the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. The planned route starts in Kashgar, crosses into Kyrgyzstan through the Torugart Pass and runs through Jalal-Abad before reaching Andijan, connecting western China with Uzbekistan’s railway network. Full-scale construction of the Kyrgyz section began in June 2025 and work remains underway.
The parties have not announced any direct link between the railway and the new e-commerce platform, but both projects expand infrastructure for trade with China, leaving Kyrgyzstan with a fundamental question: which way will the goods flow?
