The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on January 12 approved $7 million in additional financing to the ongoing Digital Central Asia South Asia (Digital CASA) project for the Kyrgyz Republic. This additional financing complements the original $50 million Digital CASA–Kyrgyz Republic Project approved in March 2018 to support Kyrgyzstan’s digital transformation through increasing access to more affordable internet, crowding-in private investment in the ICT sector, and improving the provision of digital government services.
“The Digital CASA–Kyrgyz Republic Project supports the country’s digital transformation agenda and the National Sustainable Development Strategy 2018-2040. The project is expected to foster sustainable and inclusive growth by helping bridge the digital divide, especially in rural areas of the country. It also aims to enhance the provision of digital government services, thereby promoting efficient and transparent public administration,” stated Naveed Hassan Naqvi, World Bank Country Manager for the Kyrgyz Republic.
He also emphasized that the total combined investments of $57 million under the Digital CASA–Kyrgyz Republic Project and its Additional Financing Project will enable access to better and more affordable internet services for more than 800,000 citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic thus bringing the Internet penetration rate in the country to 57%. The project focuses on laying 2,500 kilometers of fiber-optic network across the country; establishing two cross-border fiber-optic links; and building a government cloud (G-Cloud) infrastructure.
The Digital CASA–Kyrgyz Republic project will ultimately help integrate the Kyrgyz Republic and other landlocked countries of Central Asia and parts of South Asia into the regional and global digital economy, thereby enabling these countries to reap the benefits of digitalization.
