Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked nation in Central Asia, has few natural resources on which to draw. Its gross domestic product is near $11 billion for a population of 7 million people. Russia tries to keep the former Soviet Republic sweet with cheap energy, while the younger generations in the country try to push it toward a more independent future. All in all, the Kyrgyz Republic is in something of a bind when it comes to figuring out the economic conditions that might lead to prosperity.
One big idea that the country’s leaders have hit on of late is code and lots of it. Through a series of government-backed and private programs, Kyrgyzstan is in the process of training tens of thousands of software developers. As I explore in the latest episode of the Bloomberg Originals series Hello World, early signs suggest the programs are working. Companies like Codify and Mad Devs, led by women, have boomed and helped unlock the talents of bright, engineering-minded youth throughout the country.
