Kyrgyzstan plans to abolish its seven regions and 40 districts and replace them with more than 20 larger administrative units known as aimaqs.
Elchibek Zhantayev, head of the State Agency for Civil Service and Local Self-Government, announced the plans, Fergana news agency reports.
The new units would occupy an intermediate level between the existing districts and regions. Their boundaries would be determined based on geography, population and economic development potential.
The Issyk-Kul region, for example, could be divided into northern and southern parts. In the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions, smaller districts may be merged with neighboring areas that have greater development potential.
Second stage of administrative reform
The planned changes are the second stage of Kyrgyzstan’s administrative and territorial reform. The first began in 2023, when authorities redrew district boundaries and incorporated some settlements into cities.
In April 2026, President Sadyr Japarov announced plans to launch a pilot aimaq to test whether the new administrative unit could operate independently without subsidies from the national budget.
According to Japarov, the pilot project will be evaluated over one to three years. If successful, the model will be extended nationwide, leading to the abolition of the existing regions and districts.
An aimaq is a term used for an administrative subdivision in Mongolia, China, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. The word originally meant “tribe” or “tribal federation” in Mongolian and Turkic languages.