The invitation for bids is scheduled to begin in or after August 2025.
Day: August 29, 2025
The Russians are facing renewed calls for tougher U.S. sanctions.
Israeli strikes targeted senior Houthi figures amid escalating attacks on Israel, with reports of casualties disputed by Houthi officials.
On August 25, in the remote village of Kosh-Dobo in central Kyrgyzstan, construction finally started on Kyrgyzstan’s section of a railway that will connect the country to China and Uzbekistan.
It is one of the most important projects in Kyrgyzstan’s 34 years of independence. And it is not the only railway project in Kyrgyzstan, as the country is at last moving to better connect by rail, both internally and with its neighbors.
Three Dormant Decades
For the first 30 years of independence, no new railway tracks were laid in Kyrgyzstan, but that is now changing. Kyrgyzstan is about 90% mountainous. When Kyrgyzstan became independent in late 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were two railways leading into Kyrgyzstan. Both came from Uzbekistan to the west.
A northern line connected Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, through southern Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, and from there continued eastward to Issyk-Kul, a large lake and tourist area in the northeastern corner of the country. The other railway extended only a few dozen kilometers from the Uzbek border to Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. The length of the two railways combined amounted to some 320 kilometers.
Work started on the 186-kilometer Balykchy-Kochkor-Kara-Keche railway at the end of March 2022. Balykchy is located at the western tip of Issyk-Kul. Since Soviet times, it has been the last stop on the train that originates in Uzbekistan and travels through Bishkek.
Kochkor is a village in Naryn Province, about 63 kilometers southwest of Balykchy. Some 120 kilometers further to the southwest is Kara-Keche, one of Kyrgyzstan’s primary coal-mining sites and the source of much of the coal used in the thermal power plant that supplies heat and electricity to Bishkek.
Chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers Adylbek Ksaymaliyev said in May 2025 that there are already plans to connect this railway line to the China-Kyrgyzstan-China line being built through southern Naryn Province.
The Eurasian Development Bank recently agreed to fund a feasibility study for extending the railway from Balykchy to the town of Cholpon-Ata, the main tourist town on the north shore of Issyk-Kul, with a stop at the Issyk-Kul airport at Tamchy. As it stands now, people headed to Cholpon-Ata by rail must switch from the train to car or bus at Balykchy to travel the remaining 80 kilometers to Cholpon-Ata.
In May 2024, President Sadyr Japarov called for that railway line to eventually reach the town of Karakol, at the eastern end of Issyk-Kul, some 140 kilometers from Cholpon-Ata.
Naryn is the biggest province in Kyrgyzstan in terms of territory, but its connections to the rest of the country are tenuous, particularly in the northeastern part of the province where Kochkor and Kara-Keche are located.
Kosh-Dobo is in the southern part of Naryn Province, near the borders of the Jalal-Abad and Osh provinces. The village is located on the route of the long-awaited China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway that will run from Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region to Andijan, Uzbekistan.
The project was first proposed some 30 years ago, but remained in the discussion stages until recently. Eastern and southeastern Kyrgyzstan are covered by the high mountains, the Tien-Shan and Pamir mountains, respectively. That has restricted Kyrgyzstan’s trade routes to Kazakhstan, in the north, and Uzbekistan, in the west.
The 486-kilometer CKU railway will be the first significant eastern route for Kyrgyzstan (there are two roads connecting to China). Ultimately, the railway puts Kyrgyzstan on a China-Europe route that should bring Kyrgyzstan substantial revenue from transit fees, as well as allowing Kyrgyzstan to develop mining sites with critical minerals in hitherto remote areas that will be near the 312 kilometers of the railway line that passes through Kyrgyzstan and transport them to processing plants and markets.
The Kyrgyz section of the railway offers some formidable challenges as it requires the construction of 46 bridges with a combined length of some 120 kilometers, as well as 27 tunnels. China is helping with construction and loaning Kyrgyzstan some $2.35 billion to help with costs for its section of the railway.
In March this year, Kyrgyzstan announced plans to build a railway from the southern city of Batken, some 60 kilometers northeast to Kokand in Uzbekistan. Kokand has links to other cities in Uzbekistan’s section of the Ferghana Valley, as well as to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
Riding the Rails
Kyrgyzstan’s government plans to have all these new routes operating by 2030. These lines would add more than 700 kilometers of new railway.
Timing is everything, and the geopolitical situation in Central Asia, in general, and in Kyrgyzstan in particular, has changed in the last decade. For most of the first 25 years of independence, Kyrgyzstan had poor ties with Uzbekistan, limiting the use of existing railways connecting the two countries and precluding any possibility of building new rail links, including the CKU.
Uzbek-Kyrgyz relations have grown much warmer since Shavkat Mirziyoyev became Uzbekistan’s president in 2016. The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was finally demarcated, and Uzbekistan is participating in projects inside Kyrgyzstan, such as the construction of the Kambarata-1 Hydropower Plant.
When Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine, China’s trade with Europe was hampered by EU sanctions on goods transiting Russian territory, which led China to expand the Middle Corridor through Central Asia. Beijing’s decision to finally move forward with the CKU railway after all these years was no doubt prompted by the restrictions on moving goods through Russia.
Development of the domestic railway network was long overdue. Outside cities and towns, most of the roads are gravel or dirt.
Kyrgyzstan’s wealth lies in the mining industry, and the expansion of railways will help the country open and take advantage of mineral deposits. Remote communities in eastern Kyrgyzstan will benefit from being on or near the railways, as they should have better access to food and other goods.
Photo courtesy of Aliena Cai
- Aliena Cai left eBay to launch Fast Track UX, an online UX design course.
- Cai initially relied on her YouTube channel for marketing, but later expanded her strategy.
- She learned to value her services, outsource help, and manage her time effectively.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aliena Cai, 26, an entrepreneur based in Seattle. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified Cai’s business and revenue.
In my two years as a senior product designer at eBay, I worked on high-impact projects with incredibly smart people. During that time, I used my creativity to post on my YouTube channel about UX design as a side hustle.
When I felt I was making a solid revenue from YouTube ads and sponsorships, I quit my six-figure tech job at eBay and went all in on my long-term goal. I wanted to create my education program called Fast Track UX — an online course.
In the two years since then, I’ve built a strong clientele and grown my income back to six figures, but I made several mistakes along the way. If I could go back, I’d tell myself to do four things differently to save time, money, and energy — including a warning that the grass isn’t going to be greener on the other side of corporate.
I should’ve put more time and resources into promoting my product sooner
I credit my initial program sales to YouTube subscribers who already trusted my UX advice and enjoyed my teaching style. Organic marketing on my YouTube channel helped me build a strong clientele of over 1,000 students, but I think there was likely a much larger audience out there that didn’t know my course could be helpful.
I had only done ⅓ of what’s required to sell a product. I had identified an issue, but I still needed to get people to know this problem existed and make them willing to pay to have it solved.
So, I started making more YouTube videos addressing this gap. My approach was to use broad, curiosity-driven titles like “If I started UX in 2025, I’d do this,” in which I included specifics about real skills and workplace expectations that aren’t taught in typical UX certificates or bootcamps.
I found that this helped reach a larger audience. I’ve also started making more Instagram reels because Instagram naturally pushes content to a wider audience.
I shouldn’t have undervalued my services
This was my first time ever having to be a salesperson for myself, and it felt very phony. I felt a huge friction when it came to marketing my product and asking for money because it felt like such a big responsibility. Unfortunately, I let that fear hold me back from promoting my product as fully as possible. I even underpromised its value in fear of disappointing customers.
For example, I explicitly said that I wouldn’t provide any feedback to customers, but I ended up giving personal feedback to hundreds of people. It’s only in the last few months that I actually listed feedback as one of the offerings. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m learning to express the value I see in my product.
I should’ve outsourced help sooner and not been cheap about it
For the longest time, I felt like my worth was tied to my achievement, so I didn’t outsource help because I didn’t want to allow someone in who could jeopardize that feeling of worth. But that mindset only drained me of time and energy until I had nothing to give.
I finally hired a video editor last year, but I made the mistake of prioritizing cheap labor over quality.
The first editor I hired was inexpensive, but I had to give so many rounds of feedback that it took more time than if I had just edited it myself. My current editor is more expensive, but his work is clean, and I can relax knowing that the work will get done. I should’ve outsourced much earlier.
I should’ve been more realistic about becoming an entrepreneur
Having complete freedom over my own schedule requires a lot more skill and discipline than I once thought. There were days in the beginning when I would feel stuck scrolling on Instagram reels for hours, only to feel more miserable than if I had gone to a corporate meeting.
Managing my time is still a challenge, but I’ve made improvements by designing my own tool. It visualizes tasks by urgency and importance, and includes a “roll the die” feature to make choosing your next task both strategic and a little fun.
Here’s what I did right as an entrepreneur
When a lot of people want to start a side project, they get stuck on the first step, sometimes forever, because they’re waiting to feel like they have the perfect product for the perfect market.
I let the market find me. I released so many different types of YouTube videos, and when a UX design video went viral, I stuck with it.
I shared different product ideas with my audience to gauge their interest, and sent out questionnaires to learn their perspectives. I let the idea take shape with an open mind.
I’m trying to maintain that mentality as I focus on enjoying my entrepreneurial journey. Every day, I remind myself how lucky I am to be enjoying this journey of designing, even if it’s just for another Instagram reel or YouTube video, because it means so much more than the outcome.
Do you have an entrepreneurship story to share? Contact this editor, Manseen Logan, at mlogan@businessinsider.com.
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Marc Johnson
- Jesse Frimpong aims to retire by 50 through multiple income streams and investments.
- Frimpong founded Prestige Knowledge to teach online business skills after his own financial struggles.
- He emphasizes building wealth through scalable systems and not just saving for early retirement.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jesse Frimpong, the 27-year-old founder of Prestige Knowledge and an e-commerce expert who plans to retire by age 50 and is based in Florida. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m the CEO and founder of Prestige Knowledge, a company I started in 2019 that educates people on starting their own online businesses.
I started out working at Taco Bell, Macy’s security, McDonald’s, Noodles & Company, and Olive Garden. Each job taught me crucial life lessons about hard work, perseverance, and the importance of resilience.
After these jobs and prior to launching Prestige Knowledge, I built and sold e-commerce stores. I sold three of these businesses, and this experience provided me with the expertise to teach others how to build wealth.
With the income from my current business and a few other income streams, I have a plan and a goal to retire at age 50.
I watched my father struggle as an immigrant
My father worked tirelessly to provide for me, often juggling multiple jobs. His determination and work ethic inspired me deeply. It showed me that no matter the odds, you can create opportunities for yourself and your family.
My motivation to start my own business stemmed from my experiences with financial hardship. I wanted more freedom in my life, and that drive eventually led me to entrepreneurship.
I earn around $6 million a year in revenue, which includes the various ventures under my company’s umbrella, like our SaaS platforms, digital education offers, and consulting. I have five employees and a few contractors. I personally take home seven figures annually.
I used to live paycheck to paycheck
I struggled to afford a decent meal or even diapers for my newborn. I didn’t have a work visa, as I was born in the UK. That pressure pushed me into survival mode and to look for something different.
I started diving into free content, YouTube videos, podcasts, and anything I could find on building an online business. Books like “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “The Lean Startup” completely changed how I thought about money.
I built my first e-commerce store and just kept going. After trial and error, I started generating real revenue. That experience gave me both the capital and the confidence to launch Prestige Knowledge.
Retiring by 50 is about freedom
I plan to retire by 50. I want to be able to pick up and travel with my family whenever I want. I want to spend time with my two sons, be present, and create memories, not just moments squeezed between work.
I chose 50 because it gives me time to build wealth while still being young enough to enjoy it. By that age, my goal is to have at least $25 million in invested assets so I can live entirely off passive returns while continuing to fund projects and causes that matter to me.
My plan includes multiple income streams: my business, real estate, index funds, and digital products that generate passive income. I invest heavily in systems that scale, so infrastructure can grow without me needing to be hands-on all the time.
For example, automated marketing funnels bring in leads and sales 24/7 without manual follow-up, course platforms and digital products can be sold repeatedly with no additional fulfillment effort, and real-estate properties managed by others provide passive rental income.
These systems are all designed to scale up, meaning they can serve 10 or 10,000 people with relatively the same effort on my part. The goal is to keep increasing income without increasing my personal workload.
If I moved to a country like Thailand, where money stretches a lot further, I could probably retire today
Once you become an entrepreneur and find something you’re passionate about, retirement starts to look different. It’s not about quitting, it’s about choosing. For me, retirement will mean never having to make decisions based on money again.
I don’t want to take on a client or project just because it pays well. If it doesn’t align with my values or passion, I can pass without worrying about the money.
Even small things, like deciding how much time to take off or hiring help instead of doing everything myself, come from a place of freedom, not financial pressure. That’s the goal: making decisions based on what feels right, not what’s financially necessary.
A big mistake people make when it comes to retiring early is focusing only on saving
You can only cut so much, but your ability to create income is unlimited. People also underestimate the power of compound assets: a business, a good investment, or even digital products can scale your income without requiring more of your time. If you’re only thinking about how to save, not how to build, early retirement will always feel out of reach.
Everything I’m doing now is about breaking cycles. I wasn’t taught about investing, financial literacy, or entrepreneurship. I had to figure it all out on my own, and that’s why I talk to my kids about money and started my company.
It’s not just about making money — it’s about making change, creating a legacy, and making sure the next generation starts where I only dreamed of beginning.
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