Kyrgyzstan has enacted a new investment law offering substantial benefits to major investors, both foreign and domestic. Under the Law “On Investments in the Kyrgyz Republic,” investors who commit at least $10 million and possess a strong international reputation and track record in large-scale projects may now sign individual investment agreements directly with the Cabinet of Ministers, according to the National Investment Agency under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic.
These agreements grant investors access to a suite of incentives, including tax and customs benefits, visa support for key personnel, and assistance with selecting and registering land plots for investment projects. The initiative aims to boost foreign direct investment by attracting high-caliber investors.
President Sadyr Japarov signed the law on August 14, 2025. It is intended to create a more transparent and competitive investment climate and strengthen institutional protections for businesses.
The legislation defines the state’s investment policy principles, guarantees the protection of investor rights, and introduces mechanisms to safeguard those interests. It also aligns with the presidential decree “On the National Development Program of the Kyrgyz Republic until 2026,” which sets out key national targets:
Average annual economic growth of 5%
GDP per capita of at least $1,500
Unemployment rate reduced to 5%
Annual foreign direct investment inflow of at least 13% of GDP
With this legal framework, Kyrgyzstan aims to position itself as a stable, predictable partner for investors and as an emerging hub for investment in Central Asia.
Melody Koh has worked for six tech startups since 2017.
Courtesy of Melody Koh
After almost 10 years in tech, Melody Koh wants to leave the industry.
Her first few years in tech were marked by innovation and good rewards, she said.
But Koh believes the industry is now in a downward spiral due to layoffs and efficiency pushes.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 28-year-old Melody Koh, a product designer from Germany. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve worked in tech for just under 10 years. The first half of my career and the second half tell completely different stories.
I built a career as a product designer working for startups, but my career has dipped since 2021.
After being laid off in May 2025, I was unemployed for over two months. In August, I landed an opportunity to work as a contractor on product design for an e-commerce company.
It’s tech-adjacent, but since the focus is more on retail, I’m hoping it can help me eventually pivot away from the tech industry.
I don’t want to work in tech anymore. The industry has been moving in a downward spiral, with layoffs becoming common and companies being less generous.
I don’t think that the tech job market is going to get better.
I built a career in tech, focused on design
I studied experience and product design at a polytechnic in Singapore.
I was learning to design spaces and furniture, but I grew interested in digital design, such as user experience (UX) design. My tech career began with freelance work for a few start-ups during my studies. I built up my portfolio designing for apps and websites, and went on to work at tech startups after finishing my diploma in 2017.
Digitalization was a big deal at the time. I felt there would be a lot of demand for my skills and a good industry to build my career.
Between 2018 and 2022, I worked for a few startups focused on crypto and blockchains, where I learned a lot about the technology behind those kinds of products. There were always interesting design problems to solve. In 2021, I relocated to Europe, where I live now, for a fintech role.
In 2022, I lost my job due to an insolvency. After that, I worked for a data company, a Danish fintech unicorn, and then pivoted to an EdTech company, but I was laid off from the EdTech in May 2025.
The tech industry is in a downward spiral
When I first started working in tech, there was a lot of innovation and discovery around products, and I was building a lot of new things.
Nowadays, many product playbooks are already made. There are also more resources designers can implement into their own work, but it feels like you’re mimicking something that already exists.
Being a designer gets diluted when you’re not creating anything new.
In my experience, founders were more generous with their funding than they are now. Hard work used to be well-rewarded, but now, I don’t think startup employees see good rewards.
Earlier in my career, we’d always celebrate something good happening by going for team lunches or team trips. This has been less common for me recently.
It wasn’t like we got everything we wanted, but there was a work-hard, play-hard environment.
When I moved from the unicorn I was working at to my last job at an EdTech company, I took a pay cut — partly because I wanted to make an impact in the education space.
Efficiency pushes are hurting employees
I don’t think changes have happened because there’s less money in the industry. I think it’s because companies are trying to become more efficient. They’re cutting fat, and employees are getting the short end of the stick.
My friends at corporate companies get job stability, a clear career progression, and corporate discounts. They may make less money than I do, but they can use their job stability to build wealth. Meanwhile, I’ve been in and out of employment during my career. Since finishing my diploma in 2017, I’ve worked for six tech startups.
Years ago, if you weren’t happy with your pay, you could leave and find another job.
It was never easy to find a job in tech — you need technical knowledge — but nowadays, it feels like the amount of talent saturation makes it harder to land roles. It’s switched from an employee’s market to an employer’s market.
Companies overhired during COVID. I lost my job to insolvency in 2022. The industry was never the most stable, but since 2022, I feel like layoffs have become so common that it’s almost impossible not to get laid off.
I’m seriously considering leaving tech
I don’t regret my career in tech. I’ve been challenged, and I’ve grown a lot as a designer.
After being laid off in May, I was job-searching for three months. I applied to around 60 jobs, but received a lot of rejections before landing my current role.
I’ve been working on multiple side projects, including writing on Medium and starting a product studio. I plan to continue working on these in conjunction with my new job.
I’m considering what I should do next. I would probably like to focus on designing physical products instead of digital ones.
It will be difficult to convince me to work for tech companies. I don’t think it’s worth it.
Russia has expanded its drone operations with new launch sites, satellite imagery shows.
Recent images of three bases in Russia show infrastructure to support drone launches and storage.
The developments appear to reflect Russia’s increasing investment in its drone operations.
Russia has expanded its one-way attack drone operations, building out launch sites and storage facilities across the country, new satellite images and research show.
Captured in recent weeks by Maxar Technologies and reviewed by Business Insider, the new images reveal apparent launch rails, runways, and hardened shelters, as well as what looks like Shahed-style drones at three key bases used to stage attacks.
Russia has dramatically scaled up the production and launch rates of the Geran-2, a one-way attack drone modeled after the Iranian-designed Shahed-136. These deadly weapons, packed with explosives, have been used nightly in widespread strikes against Ukrainian cities.
The expanded infrastructure seen at the three bases — namely Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Navlya, and Tsimbulova — appears to reflect Russia’s growing investment in its highly destructive drone operations.
Brady Africk, an open-source intelligence analyst who has closely tracked and researched these drone base developments, explained to Business Insider that construction of the expanded drone infrastructure at the three bases began last year.
Africk said that the construction at three launch sites at Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base, located in Russia’s southeastern Krasnodar Krai region along the Sea of Azov, began in November 2024, in line with efforts to build hardened storage shelters there, too.
A collection of Shahed-style drones at Primorsko-Akhtarsk on July 27.
Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Kyiv’s internal security agency, known as the SBU, said at the start of August that it used drones to strike the base because it was used to store and launch Shaheds.
Kyle Glen, an investigator at the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience who monitors Russian drone operations, told Business Insider that Primorsko-Akhtarsk is one of the main launch sites for attacks against Ukraine.
Further north, in Russia’s Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, Russia began construction work at the Navlya nase last July. Africk said that the site, like others, has launch positions and drone storage areas.
The drone base at Navlya in the Bryansk region on August 10.
In the neighboring Oryol region, Russia began construction at its base at Tsimbulova in September 2024. The site has a long stretch of road for launching drones from moving vehicles; Russian media released footage last month showing Shahed-style drones launching from pickup trucks there.
Africk said the launch sites like the ones at Navlya and Tsimbulova require a smaller footprint than a full-fledged air base, so they are harder to find and target. They also have both the infrastructure for launching drones and storage areas to protect them.
“This makes stifling Russia’s launches of waves of drones a difficult matter in terms of timing,” he explained. “By the time Ukraine is aware of drone launches, the more pressing issue becomes shooting down ones in flight rather than targeting the launch sites suspected of sending them.”
The Iranian-designed Shahed is a one-way attack drone, or loitering munition, that can fly hundreds of miles and linger over an area before diving down toward its target and exploding on impact, with devastating effects.
Russia started using the Iranian-made Shaheds to attack Ukraine in 2022 and then opened up a factory the following year to produce them at home. The Yelabuga plant — over 1,000 miles from the Ukrainian border in the Tatarstan region — now makes an estimated 5,000 drones each month.
The Yelabuga operations have allowed Russia to rapidly scale up production without having to rely on Iran. The larger inventory has been underscored in recent months by massive drone attacks against Ukraine, regularly involving hundreds of Shahed-style drones. Western assessments suggest Moscow may soon be able to launch 2,000 in a single night.
“We’ve seen Russia’s capacity to launch these one-way attack drones increase in tandem with its capacity to produce them domestically,” Africk said, stressing that there are believed to be additional launch sites beyond the three known ones.
Russia has used Iranian-designed Shahed drones in routine mass attacks against Ukraine.
AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Britain’s defense ministry said last week that Russia launched some 6,200 one-way attack drones at Ukraine in July, a new monthly high that surpassed June’s tally by an estimated 600. But the scale of attacks seems to have subsided in August.
Glen, citing Ukrainian Air Force figures, said that as of Tuesday morning, Russia has launched nearly 1,700 drones at Ukraine so far in August — compared to around 4,500 by this point in July and 3,500 in June.
“It’s unlikely that it’s any kind of capacity issue for Russia,” he said, suggesting that Moscow may have been exercising some self-restraint in the lead-up to last week’s meeting in Alaska between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump.
Monday night, however, marked the largest attack of the month by a lot. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 270 drones from various directions, including Primorsko-Akhtarsk. Glen said it was almost double the number of the next-biggest attack in August.
The attack, though, was much smaller than some in July — one consisted of at least 700 drones — but it came on the heels of a high-stakes meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European leaders at the White House.
“That kind of shows how much of Russia has been almost restraining themselves,” Glen said. “Whether that continues will be interesting to see.”
