Report #7: Kyrgyzstan Left Out in Central Asia?

If you follow the international business news on Central Asia, you do not read much about Kyrgyzstan’s involvement in big regional economic projects. Of the most recent events, Koizumi came to Kazakhstan, where he secured a deal on uranium exports to Japan, while nobody was interested in the bids for Karabalta Uranium Plant (not that it was a bad thing or that I want more uranium tailings here). Even the Chinese are building the railroad through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey and around Kyrgyzstan (not sure when exactly the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad will come into reality). Kyrgyzstan is not in the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union. And, I am not sure how and when the American-initiated energy grid will connect Kyrgyzstan (and Tajikistan) to South Asia.