Under President Sadyr Japarov, Kyrgyzstan has become well known for ambitious projects promoting an image of economic strength in an impoverished region. But state-backed developments are also infamous for a lack of transparency.
A massive football stadium now under construction near the capital of Bishkek is a case in point. Touted as the largest in Central Asia once completed, the project has been shrouded in mystery, and the companies involved have not been publicly disclosed.
OCCRP has found evidence that one of the construction firms is Ordo Kurulush Company, which is part of a network of businesses connected to the Presidential Administrative Directorate, a government body controlled by Japarov.
That fits with the Japarov administration’s playbook.
In May 2024, OCCRP revealed five companies working on 11 other public projects managed by the presidential directorate. The owners and directors of the firms are all associated with the head of that state body, or with Japarov’s family members.
Similarly, Ordo Kurulush’s owner is associated with the head of the Presidential Administrative Directorate, Kanybek Tumanbayev.Â
Ordo Kurulush is owned by a man named Nurlan Chynybekov, who was listed as the financial director of one of the five companies that OCCRP identified as working on public projects. He also paid taxes on behalf of two of the firms, according to public data.
Chynybekov is the “chief accountant of Tumanbayev,” said a person familiar with how the presidential directorate operates, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns.
No phone numbers or email addresses were available for Chynybekov and Ordo Kurulush. The company did not respond to questions mailed to its listed address. Neither Tumanbayev nor the Presidential Administrative Directorate responded to requests for comment.
It is not just names of other companies building the stadium that remain a mystery; the details of its state financing also remain unclear.
At least some of the construction costs will be covered by the “Anti-Corruption Fund,” according to comments made on state television by Kamchybek Tashiev, who heads both the Kyrgyz Football Union and the State Committee for National Security.Â
In a press conference, Tashiev said the fund consists of fines paid by public officials who authorities have charged with corruption. The fund has not been officially registered in government databases, and the Ministry of Finance did not respond to questions about how it is managed.
The Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy said it had no information about the new stadium. The Football Union deferred questions to the Presidential Administrative Directorate.
The stadium under construction near Bishek, Kyrgyzstan.
Leila Seiitbek, a prominent Kyrgyz rights activist and lawyer living in exile in Austria, said the links between Ordo Kurulush and the head of the presidential directorate raise questions, while the secrecy surrounding the project is troubling.
“This may indicate potential corruption or a desire to hide potentially controversial aspects of the project from the public,” she said.
Reporters were unable to find any public tender documents related to the construction of the stadium. Government financing has become more opaque since amendments to the law on public procurement initiated by Japarov in 2022, which allow state-backed companies to bypass tender procedures.
While there is little public information about the stadium’s construction, a news report on state television revealed some foreign companies engaged in the project. Â
One of them, the “global architecture and design firm” Populous Holdings Inc., is incorporated in the U.S. state of Delaware and has offices around the world. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The remaining three companies are Turkish: Dzine Design and Consultancy is an architecture and interior design firm, while Arenes Engineering Group was working on electromechanical systems. The role of Statik Istanbul Akademi is unclear. None of the Turkish companies responded to requests for comment.
The Kyrgyz government has said the stadium is on track for completion in 2026, in time for the 2031 Asian Football Confederation Cup. Kyrgyzstan has submitted a joint bid with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to host Asia’s premier football tournament.
In order to be eligible, a country hosting the opening ceremony and opening match, as well as the final game, must have a stadium that seats at least 50,000 people.
