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TCA Interviews

Kyrgyzstan’s High-Wire Act: Sanctions, Compliance, and National Interest

On September 2, the day after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, The Times of Central Asia spoke with Bakyt Sydykov, Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Economy and Commerce and Special Presidential Representative for Sanctions Policy. He outlined the government’s approach to sanctions compliance and protecting Kyrgyz businesses. Sanctions exposure can affect Kyrgyz banks and businesses, as well as their international partners. U.S. secondary sanctions and EU and UK measures affecting foreign entities operate through different legal mechanisms. Some portions of the text have been edited for clarity. TCA: The sanctions against Russia adopted by the U.S., EU, and UK are not UN Security Council-mandated. Is it correct that Kyrgyzstan’s compliance policy addresses these measures rather than UN-mandated sanctions? Sydykov: That's correct. Secondary sanctions can affect non-U.S., non-EU, and non-UK entities or persons who knowingly facilitate transactions involving sanctioned parties. Our focus is on establishing better and better mechanisms and frameworks that address this bilateral dimension, that is, Kyrgyzstan's direct exposure through its relations with the sanctioning jurisdictions, in order to mitigate our exposure to potential secondary sanctions. TCA: Kyrgyz citizens and businesses can face sanctions exposure through dealings with sanctioned parties, including the risk of U.S. secondary sanctions. What are Kyrgyzstan’s main challenges in improving its compliance regime, and how are you addressing them? Sydykov: For technical reasons, our compliance regime is moving toward putting in place mechanisms that can flag or be anticipatory. I think you would agree that free markets are complicated and circumvention often comes to light only after it has occurred. We are largely equipped to manage these occurrences. We are moving to put in place firewall-like frameworks which would allow the country to identify and respond to occurrences before the fact. It is a great challenge — and one that every country operating in a free-market economy faces — to develop such a capacity, namely, to anticipate and prevent circumvention before it happens. Despite our best efforts, this remains a structural limitation. TCA: What concrete actions have you taken, or are you planning to take? Sydykov: We have established working groups, task forces, and interagency committees capable of swiftly halting the operations of any company engaged in sanctions circumvention. We are also working closely with commercial banks on these efforts. The banks, for their part, have introduced internal compliance committees and, in some cases, adjusted the composition of their boards of directors to strengthen governance and decision-making around potential circumvention risks. The banks are also developing a joint interbank blacklist of sanctioned entities, so that these entities are unable to operate through the banking system going forward. Those are steps to develop a working forward-looking, predictive approach — one that flags suspicious activity before it materializes – central to the comprehensive framework we are building. TCA: Some foreign investors may be reluctant to invest in Kyrgyzstan because of sanctions exposure. How could the measures you are taking address those concerns? Sydykov: Let me first say that we understand the rationale behind...

C5+South Korea

What Could Come Next in Kazakhstan-South Korea Relations

The first Central Asia-Republic of Korea Summit in Seoul on September 16 will elevate South Korea’s multilateral cooperation with the five countries of the region to heads-of-state level. The Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum has existed since 2007 but until now has remained primarily a ministerial mechanism. Seoul is now seeking to establish a sustainable multilateral framework at the leaders’ level. The summit’s agenda is broad, with a focus on innovation, prosperity, and connectivity. One of its main outcomes is expected to be the Seoul Declaration, setting out a medium- and long-term vision for cooperation in supply chains, emerging industries, and people-to-people exchanges. The economic agenda is already taking more concrete shape. South Korea wants to connect Central Asia’s mineral resources with its technologies for geological exploration and processing, while expanding cooperation in artificial intelligence, digital technologies, and science. Seoul also sees infrastructure, water resources, climate, and industry as potential areas for new projects. On September 16, about 500 representatives of government and business will gather alongside the five leaders. The business summit should offer the first indication of how much of the broad political agenda can be translated into investment, contracts, and joint production. Don’t Copy the Korean Miracle South Korea’s experience inevitably comes up in discussions about Central Asia’s development. But the economy that enabled Korea’s industrial breakthrough in the second half of the 20th century was built in a very different international and historical environment. Professor German Kim, director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and one of the founders of Korean studies in Central Asia, told The Times of Central Asia that South Korea’s development experience should not be treated as a model that can simply be copied. “South Korea’s accelerated modernization took place under completely different historical and international conditions. Kazakhstan should therefore study not so much the Korean model of the past as today’s mechanisms for supporting talented young people, startups, venture capital, and technological entrepreneurship,” Kim said. From this perspective, the value of the Korean experience lies more in individual mechanisms that work – from financing technology businesses to linking universities, research, and industry. Critical Minerals and Joint Production Critical minerals have become one of the central elements of South Korea’s agenda in Central Asia. South Korean industry needs reliable supplies of raw materials, while the region holds significant reserves of metals used in electronics, batteries, energy, and other high-tech industries. Seoul is already discussing projects individually with countries in the region. In August, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources held talks with Tajikistan on industrial cooperation and possible critical-mineral projects. The Korean side also proposed making meetings between the industry ministers of South Korea and the five Central Asian countries a regular mechanism. That proposal has since moved forward. On September 14, the six countries held their first C5+1 Industry Ministers’ Meeting in Seoul, agreeing to strengthen cooperation across critical-mineral supply chains. The plan explicitly extends beyond extraction to local refining and smelting, materials processing, and...

Bonds Investments

Kazakhstan to Receive Maximum Weight in New JPMorgan Bond Index

Kazakhstan will receive the maximum 8% country weight in JPMorgan’s new index for frontier market government bonds, creating an opportunity to attract new foreign buyers of tenge-denominated debt. JPMorgan plans to launch the GBI-EM Edge by the end of September. The maximum weight for any single country is capped at 8%, and Kazakhstan will receive the full quota. Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh will have the same weight. Other major components will include Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. The index will cover 26 countries, with nearly $330 billion in bonds eligible for inclusion. GBI-EM Edge is designed for frontier markets, relatively less accessible markets outside JPMorgan’s main emerging market benchmark. Inclusion is a separate development from Kazakhstan’s efforts to join that main index. The index will serve as a benchmark for international asset managers. Some funds seek to replicate its composition, while others use it to compare the performance of their own portfolios. A country’s weight can therefore influence how much money investors allocate to its bonds. However, the nearly $330 billion represents the value of bonds eligible for the GBI-EM Edge, not the amount of future investment. JPMorgan has not yet said how much capital will directly track the new index. That will largely determine how significant the additional demand for Kazakh debt may be. Foreign Investors Have Already Increased Their Holdings Foreign investors began actively buying Kazakhstan’s government debt even before JPMorgan’s decision. According to the Analytical Center of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK), non-resident holdings of government securities reached KZT 2.5 trillion, or about $5.4 billion, by the end of June. During the first half of the year, their portfolio grew by 28.3%, while the share of non-residents in the government securities market increased from 6.2% to 6.9%. In June alone, foreign investors added KZT 185.1 billion, or about $400 million. Just a year and a half earlier, non-resident holdings stood at around KZT 1.1 trillion, or about $2.4 billion. Kazakhstan has maintained a high base rate to combat inflation. This has also kept yields on government bonds high. According to AFK, real yields on government securities – meaning returns above inflation – ranged from 5.7% to 7.4% in the first half of the year. The association’s analysts also linked strong demand to expectations of a gradual reduction in the base rate. For a foreign fund, the trade can look attractive: raise money in a market with lower interest rates, buy tenge, and invest in Kazakh government bonds. If the tenge remains stable or strengthens, the investor benefits both from the high interest rate and from the currency movement. If the tenge falls, some of that return disappears when the investment is converted back into dollars. The tenge’s appreciation has already helped foreign bondholders. It strengthened by 2.6% during August, ending the month at KZT 461.57 per dollar, according to the National Bank. AFK points to another effect of foreign purchases. To buy the bonds, non-residents sell foreign currency and purchase tenge, increasing the supply...

Film Festival

Women, Cinema and Changing Kazakhstan at QYZQARAS 2026

From August 20 to 30, Almaty hosted the third edition of QYZQARAS, an independent international film festival dedicated to women directors’ voices and the female gaze in cinema. Held this year at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, the festival presented 21 feature films, including five notable works from Central Asia, among them Kristina Mikhailova’s widely discussed River Dreams. River Dreams had its world premiere in the Berlinale Forum Special section in 2026 and received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in the Forum program. The screening marked an important milestone: the film became the first Kazakh documentary feature to premiere at the Berlinale. After a run of international festival appearances, the film returned home: on August 20, it opened QYZQARAS at the Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture. River Dreams “This epic helped me believe in myself and feel at peace. I believe every frame,” Kristina said after the long applause that followed the final scene. Opening with a striking metaphysical orange river, River Dreams explores the inner lives of women in Kazakhstan. Constantly balancing between dream states and startlingly candid confession, the documentary immerses viewers in a wide range of themes – love, trauma, resistance, and survival – as women reflect on their pasts beside moving water. Grounded in a deeply humanist perspective, Mikhailova’s film presents tenderness as a sustained act of courage. Kristina’s presence behind the camera and the atmosphere of trust on set create an unpretentious portrait of contemporary Kazakhstan. It explores how the image of women is changing in this context, and how women directors themselves are shaping that change. Mikhailova begins with a simple question: “What kind of river are you?” From there, she builds the film around the personal stories of women of different ages and social backgrounds in Kazakhstan. This initial impulse encourages them to compare socially constructed ideals of femininity with what actually exists inside each of them. The most unexpected aspect of the film is the amount of humor. The protagonists’ wry, self-aware voices form an uncompromisingly honest agenda for contemporary Kazakh society: corruption, impunity, language, violence against women, and decolonization. “Decolonization is not only about one’s native language; it is about hierarchy. We look down on one another – it is a slave mentality: ‘I am better than you, so I will discriminate against you,’” says one of the young women featured in River Dreams. The director takes a transparent approach to the sensitive issue of language: in her view, what matters most is not which language we speak, but whether we are speaking about what truly matters. [caption id="attachment_56247" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image: Azhar Utezhan[/caption] “The girls did not resist or struggle with the concept of radical vulnerability; it is a very simple idea,” Mikhailova said. The Aksai River, where Kristina grew up and where her father taught her as a child to be stronger, becomes an embodiment of the socio-political whirlpool into which women in Kazakhstan have been drawn over the past 30 years. Unpredictable weather and shifting water levels carry...

Central Asia-South Korea Summit 2026

South Korea and Uzbekistan Sign 13 Agreements as Seoul Deepens Cooperation Across Central Asia

Uzbekistan and South Korea signed 13 cooperation documents during President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Seoul on September 14, covering areas including critical minerals, artificial intelligence, rail transport and defense. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will host the first summit with all five Central Asian states on September 16. The five Central Asian presidents due to attend are Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kyrgyzstan’s Sadyr Japarov, Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon, and Turkmenistan’s Serdar Berdimuhamedov. Mirziyoyev’s talks opened a series of bilateral meetings running through September 16, with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan scheduled for September 15, and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan the following morning. Among the Uzbek agreements is a memorandum to launch feasibility studies under South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund on the introduction of eight high-speed train sets and the establishment of a national genome and biobank center. The projects’ scope will depend on the studies’ findings. Uzbekistan had already agreed to purchase six high-speed trains from Hyundai Rotem in 2024. The Export-Import Bank of Korea and Uzbekistan’s investment ministry also agreed to identify potential projects and explore financing in six priority areas. These include critical minerals, AI and data centers, smart cities, an industrial complex for Korean companies, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and food, beauty and cultural industries. The presidents also agreed to use the Korea–Uzbekistan Rare Metals Center as a base for strengthening cooperation across exploration, development and processing. They agreed to expand cooperation on the use of AI in manufacturing. The package includes a defense cooperation contract involving Korea Aerospace Industries and an Uzbek counterpart. The South Korean government’s published summary did not identify the equipment or disclose the contract’s value. The agreements build on South Korea’s established economic presence across Central Asia. Its foreign ministry identifies Kazakhstan as its largest investment destination in the region, based on investment data through 2023. Kazakhstan’s industry ministry has put bilateral industrial cooperation at 46 joint projects worth about $3.9 billion, covering Hyundai and Kia vehicle production, Hyundai trucks and buses, ferroalloys and Samsung home appliances. Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan, part of Kazakhstan’s Astana Motors, produced 52,040 vehicles in Almaty in 2025, while Kia Qazaqstan began operating in Kostanay late that year, according to TCA’s reporting on Kazakhstan’s automotive industry. Korean companies are also involved in transport infrastructure and urban development. A Turkish–South Korean consortium secured the Big Almaty Ring Road public-private partnership, while South Korean partners are involved in the planned K Smart City district at Alatau. South Korean companies have participated in major industrial projects in Turkmenistan, including the Kiyanly gas chemical complex and gas processing facilities at the Galkynysh field. Daewoo Engineering & Construction is working on a mineral fertilizer production complex in Turkmenabat, where South Korea’s ambassador reviewed construction preparations in June. Turkmenistan’s foreign ministry has also highlighted Korean participation in transport infrastructure and shipbuilding. In Kyrgyzstan, South Korea has provided technical assistance to the textile sector and committed funding for a five-year digital-transformation program starting in 2026. The two governments are also examining potential cooperation involving Kyrgyzstan’s antimony...

Secularism

Kazakhstan Hijab Debate Exposes Divide Over Secularism

Kazakhstan’s long-running controversy over hijabs in schools has collided with a wider public argument about religion, exposing sharp differences among prominent public figures and institutions over the boundaries of the country’s secular model. The latest religious controversy in Kazakhstan’s social media space was triggered by two statements made within the span of a week. On September 3, well-known Kazakhstani film and entertainment producer and former television host Bayan Alaguzova wrote on Threads that she was “tired of religion and its propaganda.” “I’ll say this right away,” she added. “There’s no need to frighten me with hell – it doesn’t exist for me. Not a single person in the world can claim to have seen hell, or heaven for that matter. Now that is reliable information! The same goes for the 72 virgins thrown into the bargain.” She went on to sarcastically ask how a disembodied spirit was supposed to deprive the heavenly maidens of their virginity. The deliberately provocative tone used by the prominent film and entertainment figure stirred debate among social media users. Soon afterward, another Threads user posted a screenshot of an official complaint submitted through Kazakhstan’s eOtinish system against the producer, calling for Alaguzova’s posts to be examined for possible incitement of religious discord. There have so far been no official reports of further action on the complaint. Even so, Kazakhstanis on social media began joking about how the complainant intended to prove the existence of heaven and hell. Journalists and other users also spoke out in support of Alaguzova. On September 8, in response to the backlash, Alaguzova acknowledged on Instagram that her “words had hurt believers” and offered her “sincere apologies,” explaining that she respected “every person and every faith, as long as it does not harm others.” She then said her remarks had been misunderstood. “All those accusing me of ‘offending the feelings of believers,’ read carefully: I said that I am against the imposition of dogmas alien to our people, against radical and fanatical propaganda, not religion itself... Do you want girls to be married off at the age of nine? To be denied education or medical care? To be beaten supposedly ‘as a preventive measure against the influence of shaitan’? To be taken as wives without anyone assuming responsibility for them? To be easily abandoned simply by loudly saying ‘talaq’ three times? Do you want your daughter or sister not to be an individual in her own right, but simply an appendage to someone else? To be unable to appear in public or speak without permission? To be unable even to protect herself and her children? I am categorically against this!” the producer said. That same day, journalists at a government briefing asked Kazakhstan’s Education Minister Zhuldyz Suleimenova about reports that some private schools had allowed pupils to wear hijabs. Each new school year in Kazakhstan has brought renewed disputes over hijabs in schools. Some Muslim parents, particularly in western Kazakhstan, require their teenage daughters to wear hijabs to school. This conflicts...