Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency signed an agreement on November 7 with StarOcean Investment to build and operate a 200-hectare industrial park in the Naryn Free Economic Zone.
The park is designed to house energy-intensive, low-carbon manufacturing facilities as well as data centers and computing capacity for artificial intelligence. One data center is planned to house government data. The agency says it will help expand digital public services and support the development of an IT park at the site.
The proposed computing facilities could help address a problem identified by Kyrgyz AI developers. In a June interview with The Times of Central Asia, AIRUN CEO Chingiz Arziev said limited access to computing power was one of the main challenges in training large AI models in Kyrgyzstan.
However, the project would require electricity in a country already struggling to meet demand.
The government expects Kyrgyzstan to import 4.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2026, about one-fifth of its projected demand. Energy Minister Altynbek Rysbekov has warned that imports could be limited during peak morning and evening hours this winter, when demand also rises in supplier countries.
At a September 1 meeting with Rysbekov, representatives of StarOcean discussed how the park would be supplied with electricity. StarOcean plans to pay for the power lines, substations, and other infrastructure needed to connect the park to the grid.
The National Investment Agency says the project could ease Kyrgyzstan’s electricity shortfall and boost its export potential. Its announcement refers to plans for cross-border energy infrastructure, raising the possibility of electricity imports from neighboring China. However, the agency has not specified where the park’s electricity would come from or how much it would need.
The project’s cost, construction timeline, and planned data center capacity also remain undisclosed, making it difficult to assess the scale of the investment or its potential impact on Kyrgyzstan’s already strained electricity system.
