{"id":7038,"date":"2018-01-30T11:23:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T05:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/?p=7038"},"modified":"2020-03-07T11:35:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T05:35:20","slug":"cnbc-tech-entrepreneurship-in-kyrgyzstan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/cnbc-tech-entrepreneurship-in-kyrgyzstan\/","title":{"rendered":"Belt and Road: Tech entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan — CNBC (ENG)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As China invests in Central Asian infrastructure, technology may get a boost<\/h1>\n

Many Chinese projects in Kyrgyzstan are focused on transportation \u2014 mostly railway lines and roads \u2014 but there\u2019s another sector that may catch Beijing\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

The Central Asian state is one the poorest countries in the region, but it\u2019s home to a blossoming start-up culture. Two globally successful companies were born in the capital city of Bishkek: Mad Devs, a developer outsourcer that boasts clients from Silicon Valley to Singapore, and the tech-focused website MakeUseOf.com, which boasts millions of hits each month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe fundamental thing that can help the Kyrgyz Republic leap-frog into a better country with a better economy is technology,\u201d Aziz Soltobaev, founder of KG Labs Public Foundation, a group aimed at boosting tech entrepreneurship in the country, told CNBC. \u201cThe tech community here is growing organically, the initiative comes from the community, not the government or educational institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes to turn his country, which, unlike its neighbors, lacks oil, gas or fossil fuels, into Central Asia\u2019s tech hub. Chinese money \u2014 through the Belt and Road project \u2014 could \u201cpositively impact our plans,\u201d he said. Using a surfing analogy, he described China as \u201cthe big wave\u201d that local entrepreneurs could ride.<\/p>\n

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with a vast logistics and transport network, using roads, ports, railway tracks, pipelines, airports, transnational electric grids and even fiber optic lines. The plan, which continues to evolve, at one point included 65 countries, which together accounted for one-third of global GDP and 60 percent of the world\u2019s population, or 4.5 billion people, according to Oxford Economics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of Beijing\u2019s push to increase global clout \u2014 building modern infrastructure can attract more investment and trade along the route. The policy could also boost the domestic economy with demand abroad, and might soak up some of the overcapacity in China\u2019s industrial sector.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s second-largest economy is a source of inspiration for Kyrgyz developers, noted Aibek Esengulov, founder of MakeUseOf.com. \u201cIn Bishkek, there are start-ups trying to replicate WeChat,\u201d he said, referring to China\u2019s multi-purpose mobile app.<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t worried, he said, about the prospect of WeChat entering Kyrgyzstan and taking over the local market: \u201cCompetition is good in IT … It\u2019s about who has the best idea and implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The scene<\/h2>\n
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Small- and medium-sized enterprises are major contributors to the Kyrgyz economy, accounting for about 40 percent of national gross domestic product, the U.N. Development Agency said in a 2016 report. But low levels of internet penetration hamper the growth of e-commerce, the report added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, entrepreneurs such as Mad Devs CEO Alla Klimenko are helping train fresh talent to expand the sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe collect people who want to become developers and help them prepare,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t have oil … we just have to use what we have, our brains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her business developed the systems for Namba Taxi, Kyrgyzstan\u2019s taxi on demand service, and is able to compete on the international stage thanks to low pricing.<\/p>\n

Most people in Kyrgyzstan are entrepreneurs, said Esengulov: \u201cIt\u2019s the nature of our country \u2014 there aren\u2019t many people working in government jobs, a lot of people are running some kind of small business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Information technology is becoming increasingly popular among the younger generation, he added.<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/01\/29\/belt-and-road-tech-entrepreneurship-in-kyrgyzstan.html<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As China invests in Central Asian infrastructure, technology may get a boost Many Chinese projects in Kyrgyzstan are focused on transportation \u2014 mostly railway lines and roads \u2014 but there\u2019s another sector that may catch Beijing\u2019s eye. The Central Asian state is one the poorest countries in the region, but it\u2019s home to a blossoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1],"tags":[624,676,639],"class_list":["post-7038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy-making","category-news","tag-geo-bishkek","tag-op-ecosystem-activation","tag-format-event-record"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"ru","enabled_languages":["en","ru"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7079,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7038\/revisions\/7079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}