Economy

Kyrgyzstan has rich pasturage for goats, sheep, cattle, and horses. Over 80% of the cultivated area is irrigated. Cotton, potatoes, sugar beets, tobacco, vegetables, fruit, and grapes are grown; sericulture is carried on, and grain crops are cultivated in the nonirrigated areas. The Kyrgyz have traditionally excelled in wood carving, carpet weaving, and jewelry making. Kyrgyzstan has deposits of antimony, gold, molybdenum, tin, coal, tungsten, mercury, uranium, petroleum, and natural gas. Industries include food processing, sugar refining, nonferrous metallurgy, and the manufacture of agricultural machinery, textiles, building materials, appliances, furniture, and electric motors. The leading exports are cotton, wool, meat, tobacco, metals (particularly gold, mercury, uranium, and steel), hydropower, and machinery; chief imports are grain, lumber, industrial products, ferrous metals, and fuel. The main trading partners are other former Soviet republics and China. In 1998, Kyrgyzstan became the first former Soviet republic to join the World Trade Organization.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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