Author: Jaime Corey Floyd

Kyrgyzstan’s imports of oil products from Belgium from January through June 2023 amounted to 1,354 tons, which is a 7.2 times increase compared to the same period in 2022 (187 tons), Trend reports. According to the State Statistical Committee of the country, the import value totaled $4.705 million, increasing 6.2 times compared to the first half of the previous year ($755,200). Belgium has become the fourth-largest supplier of oil to Kyrgyzstan from January through June 2023. The largest supplier of oil products to Kyrgyzstan in the reporting period was Russia, from which Kyrgyzstan imported 189,809 tons of oil products worth…

Kyrgyzstan has become the first country among the 53 countries in the WHO European Region to conduct the second round of the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) Mission. The JEE mission, which took place from 3–7 July 2023, brought together 15 international technical experts from multiple countries, technical institutions and United Nations agencies to assess Kyrgyzstan’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats. The JEE mission examined 19 technical areas, including immunization, laboratories and more, through a peer-to-peer, collaborative process involving international and national experts. Over the course of a week, the experts engaged in collaborative discussions…

Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti has reported that as many as 50,000 labor migrants living in Russia, many of them from Central Asia, may end up losing their legal residency status this year because of personal debts. In its August 2 report, the business daily cited an Uzbek diaspora activist as estimating that the number of people ending up as undocumented migrants expand by 100,000 by 2024. Under Russian law, foreign nationals are required to leave the country after the period of legal residence has expired. As Vedomosti’s sources have noted, however, those same foreigners are increasingly being slapped with exit…

Berlin, Warsaw (11/8 – 60) The Russian invasion of Ukraine has yet to see an end. Russia has mobilized everything in its power to overcome Ukraine, including recruiting citizens of Kazakhstan to join its military forces. Russia lures Kazakh citizens through digital recruitment advertisements, recently prominent on a number of the country’s internet user pages. Several pop-up ads have started appearing on the internet pages of Kazakh residents, announcing openings for enlistment in the Russian army, with a joining-up bonus of more than USD 5,000. The advert cleverly targets the patriotic soft side of the Kazakhs, displaying flags of the…

Russia’s first e-commerce company, Ozon, has started the construction of the logistics complex in Kazakhstan, with an investment of approximately 15 billion Kazakh tenge (US$33.7 million). According to Ozon, the project, set to be completed within 12 months, will cover an expansive area of 42,000 square meters and is expected to generate 2,000 new job opportunities in the region. Ozon’s business is thriving in Kazakhstan, and the logistics complex will be expanded to accommodate increasing demand from sellers and buyers for the platform’s services. The new facility will act as a fulfilment center in Almaty, near to the Chinese border, offering…

Representatives of Kyrgyzstan got interested in MAZ construction machinery, BelTA learned from the press service of the enterprise. A delegation from the Kyrgyz Republic led by Minister of Transport and Communications Tilek Tekebaev arrived at MAZ to study the assembly of chassis and the assortment of equipment. The delegation noted that they were primarily interested in road construction equipment that could operate in mountainous areas. Minsk Automobile Plant is one of Belarus’ largest mechanical engineering companies. It specializes in making heavy-duty trucks, special-purpose vehicles, buses, trolleybuses, and trailing units. MAZ vehicles are compliant with the environmental standards Euro-3, 4, 5,…

Vice President Ma’ruf Amin listened to the aspirations of the Indonesian diaspora in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan during his working visit to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Tuesday. While lending an ear to them, Amin was drawn to Rindi’s story, an Indonesian teacher in Kyrgyzstan. “There are 13 (Indonesian) teachers in Kyrgyzstan. There is a positive image of Indonesian teachers here. In the past, there were many teachers from the Philippines, but over time, they see that the quality of Indonesian teachers is also good,” Rindi told Amin. Rindi attended the dialogue in Tashkent via the Zoom platform from Kyrgyzstan. Rindi spoke of…

On April 7, Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s federal agricultural oversight body, announced they had found pig DNA in a batch of sausage imported by Toyboss, a Kyrgyz manufacturing company. From Russia’s perspective, the infraction was a problem because the pig products had not been declared in customs. But the accusation had larger significance in Kyrgyzstan. Toyboss’s sausages are halal, meaning they are produced according to Islamic law. Although there are different ways to standardize halal – with several global norms and two competing certifications within Kyrgyzstan – one rule is universally agreed upon: pork is strictly forbidden.  Myrzabek Orumbayev, the general director of Toyboss’s parent company…

Also, the state of morality in Uzbekistan as the state seeks to curb excess piety and unlawful immorality. In this edition of the EurasiaChat podcast, Alisher Khamidov shares some insights on his recent stay in the U.S. city of Philadelphia, which he describes as being like a “new Almaty or new Tashkent” for all the Central Asian migrants that have settled there. Alisher was on a quest to find love, which, unfortunately, ended fruitlessly. What he did find, however, were communities of Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks thriving in the service sector. The trucking business has proven a particularly lucrative pursuit…

The Indian football team is all set to face Kyrgyzstan in a friendly match on their home soil on Tuesday, March 28. The Indian team heads into the match days after beating Myanmar by 1-0 in the first match of the tri-nation friendly tournament on March 22. Myanmar is coming off a 1-1 draw against Kyrgyzstan in the second game of the tournament. Captain Sunil Chhetri will be looking to make up for the opportunities that he missed on several occasions in the last game. Kerala Blasters footballer Sahal Abdul Samad has been included in the team for the game against Myanmar,…