Published
08/28/2026, 16:01State shareholdings have become one of the fastest-growing sources of budget revenue this year. Between January and July 2026, dividends from shares owned by the state and local authorities totalled 51 billion 167.7 million KGS.
A year ago, this figure was considerably lower. In the first seven months of 2025, state shareholdings generated 14 billion 770.4 million KGS for the budget. Over the course of the year, revenue rose by 36 billion 397.3 million KGS – a 3.46-fold increase.
In other words, the state began to earn almost three and a half times more from its shareholdings than it did a year earlier.
The register of the State Agency for State Property Management currently lists 19 commercial companies with state shareholdings. A single portfolio contains major assets from a wide range of sectors — from banking and gold mining to the oil and gas industry and aviation.
The list includes ‘Ayyl Bank’, ‘Eldik Bank’, ‘Keremet Bank’, ‘Capital Bank’, ‘Kyrgyzaltyn’, ‘Kyrgyzneftegaz’, ‘Manas International Airport’, ‘Kumtor Operating Company’, ‘Kygyzindustry’, the Guarantee Fund, as well as state holdings in KICB and ‘Bakay Bank’.
In addition, the state portfolio still includes the Khaidarkan Mercury Joint-Stock Company, the Bishkek Machine-Building Plant, the Mailuu-Sui Lamp Factory, the Kyzyl-Kiy Tobacco Fermentation and Machine-Building Plants, ‘Manas Tegi’ and the ‘Shumkar’ Corporation.
Not all of these companies necessarily paid dividends during the reporting period. The Ministry of Finance only shows the total amount of revenue and does not disclose which specific companies accounted for the main increase. It is therefore impossible to determine whether the threefold increase was the result of higher returns across the entire state-owned portfolio or whether it was driven by a few major companies.
It should be noted that companies with state shareholdings should not be confused with state-owned enterprises. A separate register maintained by the State Agency lists 58 state-owned enterprises, including ‘Kyrgyz Temir Zholu’, ‘Kyrgyz Aeronavigation’, ‘Kyrgyzkomur’, ‘Kyrgyzpharm’ and ‘Kyrgyz Avtobeketi’. These do not pay dividends on shares, and the transfer of their profits is recorded in the budget under a separate heading.
In January–July 2026, only 770,900 KGS were received under the budget heading ‘Profits of state and municipal enterprises’. This figure does not reflect the aggregate profit of all state-owned enterprises — it refers only to the amount transferred to the budget and recorded under this heading for the reporting period.
At the same time, the growth in dividends has significantly altered the structure of budget revenue. In January–July 2025, payments from state-owned shareholdings accounted for 24.4 per cent of revenue under the item ‘Dividends and profits’. In 2026, their share rose to 44.4 per cent.
In total, the budget received 115 billion 276.4 million KGS under this item, compared with 60 billion 467.1 million KGS a year earlier. The total increase amounted to 54 billion 809.3 million KGS, with dividends from state and municipal shareholdings accounting for around two-thirds of this sum.
A further 60.7 billion KGS was transferred to the budget by the National Bank, whilst 3.37 billion KGS came from the sale of assets held by the State Fund for Precious Metals and Precious Stones.
