Kyrgyzstan May Abolish Regions and Districts

Kyrgyzstan is planning to abolish the country’s seven regions and 40 districts and replace them with more than 20 larger administrative units called “aimaks.”

The plans were announced by Elchibek Zhantayev, head of the State Agency for Civil Service and Local Self-Government.

The new administrative units will occupy an intermediate level between the existing districts and regions. Their boundaries will be determined based on geographical location, population size and economic development potential.

For example, Issyk-Kul Region could be divided into northern and southern parts. Smaller districts in Osh and Jalal-Abad regions may be merged with neighbouring areas that have greater development potential.

The planned changes constitute the second stage of Kyrgyzstan’s administrative-territorial reform. The first stage began in 2023, when officials reviewed district boundaries and incorporated some settlements into cities.

In April 2026, President Sadyr Japarov announced plans to establish the first aimak to test whether the new administrative unit could operate independently without subsidies from the state budget.

According to Japarov, the pilot project will be tested over a period of one to three years. If it proves successful, the model will be introduced nationwide. The existing regions and districts will then be abolished.

“There are currently 44 districts and 33 cities in the republic. ... All regions and districts will be abolished, and around 20 districts will be established in their place. You could say there will be around 20 regions. That is the direction we are moving in,” Japarov said.

What is an aimak?

An aimak is a term used to refer to an administrative-territorial unit in Mongolia, China, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The word originally meant “tribe” or “tribal confederation” in Mongolic and Turkic languages.

In Uzbek, the expression “urug‘-aymoq,” which contains the word “aymoq,” is commonly used in everyday conversation to refer to the entire extended family or group of relatives.

However, in official discourse and leadership contexts, the concept is used to describe the negative practice of selecting personnel and promoting people to positions based on family ties and kinship.