In July 2022, when Kyrgyz authorities unveiled plans for Asman, a new city on the shores of scenic Lake Issyk Kul, they said the project would boost the local economy, attract foreign tourists, and help unify the nation.
Two years later, Asman city planners are bogged down in scandals over the project's substantial costs, ambiguous financing schemes and schedule delays.
The Kyrgyz government nevertheless seems poised to continue with the project.
Kyrgyz authorities envision Asman as "a green and sustainable city" featuring business centers, banks, sports arenas, high-tech buildings, a bullet-train system and state-of-the-art colleges and medical facilities where vehicles would run on natural gas and electricity.
As a nod to Kyrgyz culture, Asman (Asman means "sky" in Kyrgyz) would be laid out in the shape of a komuz, a traditional Kyrgyz musical instrument. The city would spread across 4,000 hectares and be populated by half a million residents. According to the project designers, it would take up to $20 billion in investments and 10 years to complete.
President Sadyr Japarov, seen by Kyrgyz media as the project’s main promoter, did not hide his nation-building intentions at last June’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Addressing the event, he said that the bringing together of people from across the country at the start of the project “attests to unity and cohesiveness of our people."
The new city, he said, would "become a financial hub uniting the East and West, the North and the South."
Supporters have hailed the project.
Ruslan Akmataliev, a Bishkek architect who designed the city, described it last year as “a city of future, where innovative ideas and modern technologies will meet with environmental sustainability and high quality of life.”
“The city infrastructure,” he said, “will be developed with the use of advanced technology to minimize negative environmental impacts. From using renewable energy to creating green zones and balanced waste disposal system, Asman seeks to be an example for other cities in terms of environmental responsibility."
Local residents concerned
Locally, however, reactions have been mixed.
In the lakeside villages of Toru Aygyr and Chyrpykty, 190 kilometers (118 miles) to the east of Bishkek and close to Asman city's proposed site, a dozen residents randomly interviewed by VOA said they supported the project because of potential economic benefits but also quietly voiced concerns.
"The lands [of the proposed Asman city site] are used for grazing cattle and farming. There are also many houses. What will happen to them?" asked a Toru Aygyr shopkeeper who refused to give her name for fear of official retaliation.
In a country where transparency has been a perennial problem, other locals were more frank.
"We heard that the government is spending a lot of money on [building] it, but we haven't seen any results,” Askhat, a retired schoolteacher from Chyrpykty who provided only his first name, told VOA.
He said the whole area is still empty a year after the groundbreaking, adding, “We all know that officials use big construction projects to steal money."
Japarov's hopes that the project would unite the nation appear to be ill-founded.
Some critics say the Kyrgyz public has not been property consulted. As of this month, the State Directorate for Asman City, a government agency that was created in October 2021 to build and run Asman, has neither an office nor a website. During VOA's visit to the construction site, there were no billboards or signs with information about the project.
A prominent critic
Others point to the project’s hefty costs.
Zhanar Akayev, a Kyrgyz member of parliament, referred to pressing problems elsewhere in the country in a late June 2023 interview with Kyrgyz media.
"We have problems with water supply in the summer; in winter, we are dealing with smog pollution. Public transportation is outdated, new neighborhoods are in bad condition, there is a scarcity of kindergartens and schools. Waste disposal has not improved despite much investment,” he said.
“If we continue this way, the city of Bishkek will turn into a big village. Instead of wasting billions of U.S. dollars to build a new city, why not repair Bishkek city?" he asked.
As a member of the Supreme Council, or the Jogorku Kenesh, Akayev gained prominence for opposing the controversial "foreign agents law" and publicly condemning government persecution of human rights activists and journalists. In a country where the authorities have been increasingly cracking down on political dissent, Akayev remains one of the few outspoken government critics.
Scandals pile up
Asman has become marred in a series of scandals as well. The leadership of the State Directorate for Asman City has reportedly changed three times since 2022.
Timur Fayziev, the initial director of the agency, was arrested on money laundering charges in October.
In March 2023, Japarov's administration announced that the President’s Office was taking over control the State Directorate; previously, the State Directorate was under the Cabinet of Ministers.
Under the Kyrgyz constitution, the President's Office has more political and economic clout than the Cabinet. The transfer also means Japarov will be personally involved in day-to-day management of the project.
Ambiguities in the financing plan have also raised public concerns. In 2022, Kyrgyz authorities said four French companies would provide funding for Asman.
In June 2023, Kyrgyz officials said that investors from India, Qatar, UAE and Turkey would finance Asman.
A year later, the Kyrgyz government apparently dropped the previous investors in favor of a little-known South Korean company.
In May, to increase Asman’s attractiveness to investors, the Kyrgyz government proposed a law to allow foreign citizens to own real estate in the Issyk Kul region. Current law bans ownership of real estate by foreigners.
More-serious opposition to Asman has come from environmentalists.
In January 2022, when the Kyrgyz government was more tolerant of political dissent, critics formed an organization to oppose the project and distributed a petition opposing it.
In a more recent display of environmental concerns, Dmitri Pereyaslavskiy, an ecological activist for Archa, a Bishkek-based environmental nonprofit, told Kyrgyz media that even if the new city did not have people, its construction would have harmful ecological consequences for Issyk Kul.
“Any type of construction, which happens in natural parks, is harmful for the environment," he said.
The project continues
Despite various obstacles and public concerns about the project, Kyrgyz authorities are unwilling to abandon the project.
Japarov's administration announced this month that construction would resume, albeit with a slight change of focus: Authorities said they would concentrate on making the new city more environmentally friendly.
This measure has done little to quell political tensions, though.
Discussions became heated during a late May parliamentary meeting on the draft law to allow foreigners to own Issyk Kul real estate. Sultanbai Aijigitov, one of the key opponents of the law, walked out of the parliamentary session after accusing the initiators of the law of "selling the motherland."
Akylbek Japarov, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, explained why the Kyrgyz government is poised to continue with Asman despite the obstacles. In a February 2022 interview with Kyrgyz media, he said, "We, the Kyrgyz, [historically] had conquered cities, destroyed them, set fire, and then grazed cattle on what was left of them. Building a new city is a dream of Kyrgyz people. Asman city is a dream of the [Kyrgyz] president, and as I hope, this dream will come true."
