Are the Issyk-Kul Region’s best years for investment already behind us?

In 2025, the Issyk-Kul Region recorded growth in foreign investment for the first time in three years. The volume of investment rose by 25.9 per cent to reach $1.08 billion. However, the region is still a long way from its previous records.

Statistics since 2004 show that investment in the Issyk-Kul Region has come in waves. Periods of rapid growth have almost invariably been followed by sharp declines. That said, the most successful years were by no means recent.

In 2004, the region received $439.7 million in foreign investment. Just five years later, the figure had almost quadrupled to $1.69 billion. In 2011, the inflow exceeded $2.6 billion for the first time, with the Issyk-Kul region accounting for more than half of all foreign investment received by Kyrgyzstan at that time.

However, it was not possible to maintain this level. By 2012, the volume of investment had fallen by almost 43 per cent. Another comparable decline occurred in 2015.

A genuine investment boom began in 2018. In just one year, inflows almost doubled to $2.92 billion. In 2019, the region set a record that remains unbroken to this day — $3.59 billion. Even during the pandemic year of 2020, the volume remained high — $3.46 billion.

Thus, in the years 2018–2020 alone, the Issyk-Kul region received almost $10 billion. This represents more than a quarter of all foreign investment attracted by the region over the 22 years of observation.

It was precisely after this peak that the trend changed. In 2021, the volume of investment fell by almost half — to $1.79 billion. In 2022, it temporarily rebounded to $2.49 billion, but then fell again – to $1.37 billion in 2023 and just $861.1 million in 2024.

Last year’s figure effectively set the region back to the levels seen in 2006–2007.

Growth to $1.08 billion in 2025 halted the two-year decline, but did not mark a return to the investment boom. The current figure is still 69.8 per cent below the historic high of 2019 and roughly corresponds to the 2015 figure.

The region’s position within the country has also weakened. In 2011, the Issyk-Kul region accounted for 52.9 per cent of all foreign investment in Kyrgyzstan, and in 2019–2020, around half. By 2025, its share had fallen to 12.8 per cent.

Nevertheless, the region remains one of the largest regional recipients of foreign capital. By the end of 2025, it ranked second after Bishkek, which received almost $5.2 billion, and was slightly ahead of the Chui Region with $965.4 million.

In total, between 2004 and 2025, the Issyk-Kul Region received around $36.5 billion in foreign investment. However, a significant proportion of this amount was concentrated in a few particularly successful years.