The Kyrgyz parliament has adopted a law under which foreign citizens who invest US$230,000 in the country’s economy will have the right to receive 10-year visas. The Kyrgyz parliament considered and passed in the third reading a bill On Changes to the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic On External Migration.
“The bill proposes gradation of invested amounts according to which a foreign citizen or a stateless person has the right to receive a visa for five years for investment worth at least 10 million Som (US$115,000) and a foreign citizen or a stateless person has the right to receive a visa for ten years for investment worth at least 20 million Som (US$230,000),” according to a report published on the Kyrgyz parliament website.
The visa programme is primarily aimed at Russian nationals looking for pastures new should their business or quality of life be perceived to have been altered by the Ukraine conflict. However, the offer may also be attractive to Chinese and other Central Asian investors wanting travel and residential security when considering business investments.
The Kyrgyz government is offering other business incentives to investors, while the country is set to benefit in due course from the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a Belt and Road Initiative project that will link Kyrgyzstan closer to China as well as to the Middle East via onward rail connections through to the INSTC.
The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as well as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). These include trade agreements with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all key routes along the ‘Middle Corridor’ linking Europe overland to China.
Kyrgyzstan is landlocked however is emerging as an important strategic hub for BRI and Middle Corridor transport and logistics. It is also developing as a transit manufacturing hub providing added value manufacturing and services to component parts imported from elsewhere, with relatively low production costs being part of the package.
Apart from trade agreements with the EAEU and CIS member countries, Kyrgyzstan also has trade agreements with China, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and the United States.
Source: Silk Road Briefing
