{"id":7786,"date":"2018-10-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/startup-ecosystem\/kyrgyzstan-ict-enterprise-registry-2018\/"},"modified":"2018-10-22T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T09:00:00","slug":"kyrgyzstan-ict-enterprise-registry-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kglabs.org\/ru\/kyrgyzstan-ict-enterprise-registry-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"An Industry of Individuals: What the ICT Enterprise Registry Reveals About Kyrgyzstan’s Digital Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
An Industry of Individuals: What the ICT Enterprise Registry Reveals About Kyrgyzstan’s Digital Economy<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
As of January 2018, the Kyrgyzstan National Statistics Committee registry counted 7,522 entities engaged in ICT-related activity across the country. That number \u2014 extracted from ten consecutive annual snapshots and shared with KG Labs as part of a 2018 ecosystem mapping exercise \u2014 sounds like a substantial figure. In 2008 the same registry had counted 2,372. A decade of more than three-to-one growth in registered ICT businesses looks, at first, like a sector that has arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The structure beneath that number tells a more specific story. Over three-quarters of those 7,522 entities are individual entrepreneurs \u2014 sole operators registered as businesses rather than companies with employees, payroll, or formal hiring capacity. The category that most directly corresponds to what an IT graduate might work in \u2014 software development firms \u2014 numbered 143 entities nationally. Of those, 96% of the small formal businesses were in Bishkek. The sector grew threefold in a decade, and the growth was almost entirely in informal and retail-facing activity rather than in the kind of structured software and services companies that can absorb a fresh graduate and offer career development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten Years of Growth: The Registry Trend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Natsstatkom data covers every year from 2008 through 2017. The growth trajectory is consistent: a sector that added roughly 500 entities per year in the early period and somewhat fewer as the base grew, moving from just over 2,300 in 2008 to just over 7,500 by the close of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
\n
Year<\/th>\n
Total ICT Entities<\/th>\n
Individual Entrepreneurs<\/th>\n
IE as % of Total<\/th>\n
Small Businesses<\/th>\n
Medium<\/th>\n
Large<\/th>\n <\/tr>\n <\/thead>\n
\n
\n
2008<\/td>\n
2,372<\/td>\n
1,522<\/td>\n
64%<\/td>\n
513<\/td>\n
156<\/td>\n
181<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
2010<\/td>\n
4,211<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
539<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
2012<\/td>\n
5,156<\/td>\n
3,661<\/td>\n
71%<\/td>\n
956<\/td>\n
294<\/td>\n
244<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
2014<\/td>\n
6,380<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
1,015<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
2016<\/td>\n
7,157<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
1,125<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n
\u2014<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
2017<\/td>\n
7,522<\/td>\n
5,801<\/td>\n
77%<\/td>\n
1,213<\/td>\n
261<\/td>\n
247<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n Source: National Statistics Committee of Kyrgyzstan, ICT enterprise registry (\u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-2 and \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3), annual snapshots as of January 1 of the following year. Full size-category breakdown available for 2008, 2012, and 2017 only from extracted data. 2010, 2014, 2016 totals confirmed from full registry snapshots; IE and medium\/large breakdowns not extracted for those years.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Source: National Statistics Committee of Kyrgyzstan (\u041d\u0430\u0446\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c), ICT enterprise registry \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-2\/\u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3, annual snapshots as of January 1 of the following year. +217% growth over the decade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The share of individual entrepreneurs in the total rises consistently: 64% in 2008, 71% in 2012, 77% in 2017. This is not a sign of sector weakness in itself \u2014 in many economies, freelance and sole-operator activity is a legitimate and productive part of the technology services landscape. But the direction of the trend matters: the formal business layer \u2014 small, medium, and large companies \u2014 is growing more slowly than the individual-operator layer, and is staying relatively constant as a share of the total rather than expanding to create more structured employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the Sector Actually Does<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The registry breaks down entities by OECD economic classification codes. In 2017, the largest single category by entity count was not software, not telecom, and not IT services: it was retail sale of computers and software in specialised stores (code 47.41), with 1,208 entities. That category \u2014 electronics and technology retail \u2014 represents 16% of all ICT-registered entities in the country. The overwhelming majority of those 1,208 are individual entrepreneurs: 1,142 of 1,208, or 94.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
88.9%<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n Source: \u041d\u0430\u0446\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3 registry, data as of January 1, 2018 (2017 activity year). Software development (62.01) highlighted because it is the category most directly linked to formal graduate employment. «Other IT activities» (62.09) is a broad residual category. Individual entrepreneur percentages calculated from registry size breakdown.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
Top ICT Sectors by Entity Count \u2014 Kyrgyzstan 2017<\/p>\n\n .ks-lbl{font-size:10.5px;fill:#1D1D1F;font-family:-apple-system,sans-serif}.ks-val{font-size:10px;fill:#555;font-family:-apple-system,sans-serif}.ks-note{font-size:9px;fill:#aaa;font-family:-apple-system,sans-serif}\n \n\n \n Computer & SW retail (47.41)\n \n 1,208 \u00b7 94.5% IE\n\n \n Other IT activities (62.09)\n \n 966 \u00b7 97.2% IE\n\n \n Wireless telecom (61.20)\n \n 445 \u00b7 82.2% IE\n\n \n Audio-visual retail (47.43)\n \n 362 \u00b7 99.4% IE\n\n \n Data processing & hosting (63.11)\n \n 352 \u00b7 87.2% IE\n\n \n Web portals (63.12)\n \n 184 \u00b7 100% IE\n\n \n Software development (62.01) \u2605\n \n 143 \u00b7 63.6% IE \u00b7 70.6% in Bishkek\n\n \n \n ICT services\n \n Retail categories\n \n Software dev (highlighted)\n\n
Source: \u041d\u0430\u0446\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3 registry, January 2018. IE = Individual Entrepreneurs. \u2605 Software development shown separately as the sector most directly linked to graduate employment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The software development row is worth looking at separately. With 143 entities, it is the category most directly associated with the kind of IT employment that university graduates might expect to enter \u2014 writing code, building systems, working on products. Its Bishkek concentration is by far the highest of any category: 101 of 143 entities, and 48 of the 50 registered small businesses, are in Bishkek. Of the remaining 42 entities, 20 are in Chuy oblast (the region surrounding Bishkek), one is in Osh city, and 21 are distributed across the rest of the country. That distribution means that for a software engineering graduate from Talas, Naryn, or Jalal-Abad, the local formal employment market in their field has a near-zero presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Geography of Where Entities Are<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The regional spread of all ICT entities in 2017 reveals a picture that is more distributed than the software sector alone \u2014 but still heavily tilted toward the southern and northern extremes of the country, with the middle regions largely absent from formal ICT activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
\n
Region<\/th>\n
ICT Entities (2017)<\/th>\n
% of National Total<\/th>\n
Character of Activity<\/th>\n <\/tr>\n <\/thead>\n
\n
\n
Bishkek city<\/td>\n
1,862<\/td>\n
24.8%<\/td>\n
Software, services, formal businesses; 71.3% of all small businesses nationally<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Osh oblast (excl. Osh city)<\/td>\n
1,231<\/td>\n
16.4%<\/td>\n
Predominantly individual entrepreneurs; retail and informal services<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Chuy oblast (excl. Bishkek)<\/td>\n
1,120<\/td>\n
14.9%<\/td>\n
Mixed; includes spillover of Bishkek IT companies and logistics\/distribution<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Osh city<\/td>\n
845<\/td>\n
11.2%<\/td>\n
Individual entrepreneurs dominant; 1 software dev firm; active wireless telecom presence (75 entities)<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
Smallest regional presence; 9 entities in Talas city software\/services<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n Source: \u041d\u0430\u0446\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3 registry, data as of January 1, 2018. «Osh oblast» and «Osh city» are administered separately in the registry. Activity character descriptions derived from sector-level breakdown in the full registry data. Bishkek’s share of small businesses (71.3%) calculated from small-business counts by region across all ICT categories.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Osh oblast’s position is instructive. With 1,231 entities (plus 845 more in Osh city itself), the south of the country is not absent from the registry. But the 2019 ICT roadmap for Osh \u2014 researched in parallel with this data \u2014 found that the Osh technopark area had only two specialists in 1C accounting software serving the entire oblast, while Bishkek had over a hundred. The registry entity count and the functional depth of the sector are different things. A high entity count built on individual entrepreneurs registering retail or general «IT activities» does not translate into structured employment capacity for graduates with software engineering degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Size Structure: What Formalization Looks Like<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n \n
\n
Entity Category<\/th>\n
Count (2017)<\/th>\n
% of Total<\/th>\n
Bishkek share<\/th>\n <\/tr>\n <\/thead>\n
\n
\n
Individual entrepreneurs<\/td>\n
5,801<\/td>\n
77.1%<\/td>\n
13.8% (802 of 5,801)<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Small businesses<\/td>\n
1,213<\/td>\n
16.1%<\/td>\n
71.3% (865 of 1,213)<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Medium businesses<\/td>\n
261<\/td>\n
3.5%<\/td>\n
29.9% (78 of 261)<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Large businesses<\/td>\n
247<\/td>\n
3.3%<\/td>\n
47.4% (117 of 247)<\/td>\n <\/tr>\n
\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n
7,522<\/strong><\/td>\n
100%<\/strong><\/td>\n
24.8% (1,862 of 7,522)<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n <\/tbody>\n <\/table>\n Source: \u041d\u0430\u0446\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043c \u0413\u041a\u042d\u0414-3 registry, data as of January 1, 2018. Bishkek share calculated from regional breakdown in registry data. Note: Bishkek’s share of individual entrepreneurs (13.8%) is much lower than its share of small businesses (71.3%) \u2014 suggesting that informal individual-entrepreneur activity is more evenly distributed nationally while formal business infrastructure is highly concentrated in the capital.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Bishkek holds 71.3% of small businesses but only 13.8% of individual entrepreneurs<\/td><\/tr>\n <\/table>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The size-geography interaction in the last column above is one of the sharpest findings in the data. Individual entrepreneurs are distributed across the country \u2014 Bishkek holds only 13.8% of them, while Osh oblast and Osh city together hold more than 20%. But small businesses \u2014 the tier most likely to hire graduates, offer professional development, and eventually scale \u2014 are concentrated in Bishkek at a rate of 71.3%. This is not because Bishkek has more population; it is because the formal business infrastructure for technology firms \u2014 access to banking, legal services, accelerator programs, investor networks, co-working spaces \u2014 is overwhelmingly centred in the capital. A student who wants to join a small software company almost certainly needs to be in Bishkek to find one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Software Development vs. Education Output: The Specific Gap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The KG Labs university survey \u2014 the companion to this enterprise analysis \u2014 found that Kyrgyzstan’s fifteen IT-active universities produced roughly 2,974 undergraduate graduates cumulatively through 2018, with an annual output of over 500 graduates across all programs. Annualised against the enterprise registry data, that pipeline is producing more IT-educated graduates per year than there are software development companies in the entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That comparison is deliberately simplified \u2014 not every IT graduate needs to join a software company, and not every software development entity in the registry needs to hire from a university. But it does point to a real structural question: where do Kyrgyzstan’s IT graduates go? The enterprise registry suggests the formal absorption capacity is shallow and geographically narrow. The options this leaves are migration to Bishkek for those who want to stay in the sector, emigration for those who want international career exposure, transition into the informal individual-entrepreneur layer of the economy, or re-entry into sectors \u2014 teaching, government service, NGO work \u2014 where IT skills are relevant but not the primary role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of these outcomes is necessarily problematic on its own. Migration to Bishkek transfers talent to where the formal sector is. Emigration \u2014 to Russia, Kazakhstan, or further \u2014 generates remittances and, in some cases, return expertise. The individual-entrepreneur category represents real economic activity even if it is informal. The question the data cannot answer is whether these pathways are what the education system intended to prepare graduates for, or whether a different configuration of formal employer capacity in regional cities would change what is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n