Bishkek, 10 November. Kyrgyzstan’s government has changed the way fees are paid for doing business in the Naryn free economic zone: miners, data centres and developers of software and artificial intelligence get a separate fee calculation if they do not take power from the national grid, according to the resolution reported by 24.kg.
The resolution was signed by the chairman of the Cabinet, Adylbek Kasymaliev. It amends the resolution of 1 August 2014 No. 431, which governs the work of Kyrgyzstan’s free economic zones. Such a zone is a territory with a special regime for doing business, and in Naryn enterprises pay for the right to operate. For ordinary participants in the zone the fee is 1% of revenue from the sale of goods, work and services, in Kyrgyzstan and abroad.
A separate mechanism is provided for companies working in mining, virtual assets, data centres, software and artificial intelligence. The main condition is that they must generate electricity themselves or cover their needs through imports without connection to the national grid. The fee is calculated from the cost of the electricity actually consumed at the tariff for commercial consumers with energy-intensive production: 0% in the first year of commercial operation, 1.5% in the second and 3% from the third year. Apart from these and payments under contracts with the zone’s general directorate, the procedure provides for no other payments.
The condition is explained by President Sadyr Japarov’s recent remarks. On 28 October he said in an interview with Super.kg that new mining farms are not receiving permits because of an electricity shortage: only two operate, at the Kambar-Ata HPP-2 and in Kemin, 24.kg reported. The Kemin farm, he said, uses not Kyrgyz electricity but imports from Russia and Kazakhstan, and in winter, when power runs short, its work may be suspended and the imported electricity redirected to the population. The new resolution opens a route for energy-intensive digital production that does not touch the national grid.
The aim of the changes, the resolution says, is to attract foreign investment, develop the regions and create conditions for high-tech production. Which companies this concerns, how much power they will need and how “imports without connection to the national grid” will be organised technically, 24.kg’s account does not say. The resolution itself is not reproduced in this report.
What it means: Bishkek ties the incentive for miners and AI companies to where the electricity comes from: a zero fee in the first year, then 1.5% and 3%, but only outside the national grid. The authorities are trying to combine inviting investors with the ban that Japarov explained by a shortage of electricity.
Who benefits: Miners and data-centre operators ready to supply themselves with power: they are offered a zero rate in the first year and low percentages after that. The regions: the stated aim of the changes is regional development. What the population gets is not visible from the account; in the president’s remarks the main condition is to avoid a shortage.
Background: Naryn is a region of Kyrgyzstan that borders China. Mining here means producing cryptocurrency on powerful computers that consume a lot of electricity; a data centre is a building with servers that store and process data and train artificial intelligence models.
