Uzbekistan’s grandiose hydropower development plans are irking neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which is experiencing a shortage of water resources. These shortages have in part been caused by Kyrgyzstan swapping its water with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in exchange for electricity.

Uzbekistan’s construction of six hydroelectric power plants (HPPs), with a total capacity of 228 megawatts, has begun on the Naryn River in the Namangan region. The Uzbekhydroenergo project is estimated at $434 million and will generate up to 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to provide energy for 430,000 households. This will allow the country to save up to 310 million cubic meters of gas annually, to help alleviate shortages which has seen Uzbekistan turn to Russia.

The launch of the hydro project will provide the Namangan region with 7.8 billion kWh per year, which far exceeds local demand. This surplus energy will be transferred to neighboring regions in the Fergana Valley, and will guarantee energy supply during periods of peak consumption.

These plans contrast greatly with Kyrgyzstan’s situation, as the republic imports 3 billion kWh of electricity from neighboring states during the fall and winter seasons. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan supply Kyrgyzstan with electricity in winter, and in return Kyrgyzstan provides them with water in summer, measuring the volume of water using a generator, and thus paying back the debt for the electricity.

According to official data, the Toktogul Reservoir in Kyrgyzstan is designed to hold 19.2-19.6 billion cubic meters of water. Kyrgyz Deputy Energy Minister, Talaibek Baigaziyev noted at a March 4 press conference in Bishkek that with electricity consumption on the increase and water levels falling, people urgently needed to curtail their usage. Water levels had already stopped at 7.7 billion cubic meters, versus a normal level of 17.3 billion cubic meters, leading to a risk of possible blackouts. If the level reaches anything below 6.5 billion cubic meters, the Toktogul HPP will stop.

In 2024, the Kyrgyz authorities plan to launch 11 HPPs, five large and six small. According to the Eurasian Development Bank, Kyrgyzstan’s energy sector will be operating under a state of emergency from now until the end of 2026. Kazakhstani experts have also expressed concern about their neighbors’ energy development plans. They say water shortages could worsen in the region, with water already scarce in Kazakhstan.

Bulat Yesekin, an expert on environmental policy and institutional frameworks for environmental protection, notes that “large hydropower plants further aggravate the problem of water supply and disrupt environmental sustainability. All over the world today there are campaigns to demolish hydroelectric dams and restore the natural regime of rivers. Only the preservation of natural river regimes can reduce water scarcity and create a more reliable basis for water supply for agriculture and industry.”

The construction of HPPs in border areas continues to create transnational problems. Altering river courses can destroy or alter ecosystems, change biodiversity, affect fisheries and agriculture, erode coastlines, and increase the risk of flooding in certain areas; yet access to electricity is a key issue across Central Asia that requires hydro resources to remain stable.

A man originally from Kyrgyzstan is among the suspects detained in the attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed about 140 people, according to media reports.

The man, identified as Alisher Kasimov, allegedly rented an apartment to men who carried out the attack on the Crocus City complex on Friday night. He appeared in court on Tuesday and did not show signs of having been beaten or tortured, as was the case with some other suspects.

Videos circulating on social media showed a distraught woman purported to be Kasimov’s mother. In the videos, the woman says Kasimov is innocent and that he did not know that he was renting an apartment to people who were plotting an attack. Kasimov denounced his Kyrgyz citizenship in favor of Russian nationality in 2014.

Several migrant laborers from Tajikistan were charged with terrorism Sunday night for their alleged role in the devastating assault with rifles and explosives.

The attack has focused attention on the large number of Central Asian migrants living – often in grim conditions – in Russia, as well as the possible vulnerability of some of them to recruitment by extremist groups.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Crocus City killings. Russia has tried to assign blame to Ukraine and the West, without offering evidence.

A digital ecosystem called Uzum has become Uzbekistan’s first tech ‘unicorn’ — a pre-IPO company with a valuation of over $1 billion — by attracting investment of more than $100 million this month. The bulk of this capital was put up by a Californian company, FinSight Ventures.

Uzum, founded by Jasur Jumaev, the co-founder of KupiKupon, and Boris Dobrodeyev, the former CEO of the Russian social network VKontakte, provides e-commerce services and banking projects for individuals and small and medium-sized businesses through a superapp. The investors will hold stakes of less than 5% apiece, while Uzum’s overall valuation has reached over $1.1 billion.

Under the structure of the deal, the equity capital investment amounted to more than $50 million, and another $50 million was raised earlier in the form of loans.

Prior to that, the founders had planned to raise $300 million. “We still plan to raise about $300 million during this year, but we have divided the round into two parts. This is the first one. The second part is already with the participation of funds from the Middle East, the UK and the U.S.,” Jumaev said.

The company has aggressive plans: to launch Uzbekistan’s largest logistics complex for e-commerce, which will increase its turnover by 2.5 times and expand the area of warehouses to 500,000 square meters, and an increase in the number of order delivery points. By the end of 2023, Uzum had 10 million monthly users, and its e-commerce revenue exceeded $150 million.

The next step for the first Uzbek tech unicorn will be an IPO, which is scheduled for 2026. According to Jumaev, the company is “considering all possibilities for optimal capital raising. One of the scenarios is to enter the Tashkent Stock Exchange and/or the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange with parallel placements on Western markets.”

FinSight Ventures believes that Uzum is a national leader in key business verticals such as fintech and e-commerce, which in the future will allow it to follow the example of Kaspi.kz, from neighboring Kazakhstan, and become the standalone leader of Uzbekistan’s tech market.

According to the international auditing company KPMG, Uzbekistan is showing very strong economic growth: the country’s GDP growth for 2023 was 6%, and by 2030, under the strategy “Uzbekistan-2030,” overall GDP may reach $160 billion. Uzbekistan’s e-commerce is the fastest growing in Central Asia, forecasted to reach $1.8-$2.2 billion by 2027.

That potential is attracting major online retail players to the country: the Russian company Wildberries has been operating in Uzbekistan since 2022, and Ozon, also of Russia, entered Uzbekistan in November 2023. In this context, burgeoning national champion Uzum has a solid chance at becoming the largest retailer in the country as early as next year.

On March 26th, Akylbek Japarov, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, visited a tire recycling plant in the city of Tokmok in northern Kyrgyzstan.

The Kumtor Gold Company has invested 19.2 million US dollars in an enterprise which uses German technology to re-tread tires of any size, and aims to increase the company’s efficiency by creating new sources of income. The plant, scheduled to open at the end of 2024 and currently operating in test mode, employs about 200 people and recycles more than 2 tons of old tires per hour.

A key goal of the plant is to produce surface material from crumb rubber for use in children’s sports areas at home and abroad. The initiative was welcomed by Mr Japarov who during his visit expressed the government’s readiness to install it in children’s playgrounds in schools and parks across the country.