John C. K. Daly
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan have taken numerous steps over the past several months to advance the construction of new modern cities (Forbes.kz, December 2, 2025; Economist.kg, January 15; Gazeta.uz, January 16). These four Central Asian countries have been building these metropolises designed for hundreds of thousands of residents for several years. Kyrgyzstan is building Asman, Kazakhstan—Alatau, Uzbekistan—New Tashkent, and Turkmenistan—Arkadağ. All are major projects, designed for initial populations of approximately 250,000. All four states are attempting to replace outdated Soviet-era infrastructure and increase international investment by providing state-of-the-art facilities and services for foreign companies. Central Asia will also need more urban facilities to accommodate a growing population, which the United Nations predicts will grow from about 84 million today to over 114 million by 2050 (ASIA-Plus, May 2, 2025; UNICEF, November 7, 2025).
The new urban centers are meant to facilitate and project Central Asia’s modernization. In 2023, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov laid the groundwork for Asman’s construction, saying that foreign direct investment (FDI) would cover the entire cost (24.kg; Tsentr Aziia, June 30, 2023). In 2021, the Kyrgyz government started discussing the construction of Asman (Kyrgyz for “sky”). Bishkek planned to build Asman on the northwestern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul for up to 700,000 inhabitants at an estimated cost of $20 billion, in a design that resembles a Kyrgyz musical instrument, the komuz (Izvestiia, January 9). Japarov claimed that it was cheaper and easier to create a new city than to update any of the existing ones. Bishkek suspended the project in 2023 after international partners proposed changes aimed at creating a “green city,” requiring additional time to revise the concept (24 KG, November 3, 2025).
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