Almaz Sazbakov
Deputy Minister
Ministry of Economy
Kyrgyz Republic
Transition Economy Program (’10)
Almaz Sazbakov has been serving as Deputy Minister of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic since April 2016.
Almaz received his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration (Cum Laude) from the American University in Kyrgyzstan (currently the American University of Central Asia) in 2002. He worked as Leading Specialist in the National Statistics Committee until September 2005, when he moved to Tokyo to study in a two-year JICA-sponsored program at Hitotsubashi University, majoring in economics. Upon his return to Bishkek, he entered the Ministry of Finance, and after one year he moved to the Ministry of Economy (MoE) to become the Head of the Investment Promotion Unit. In October 2009 Almaz was granted a scholarship by IMF and enrolled in the Transition Economy Program at GRIPS from which he graduated with a Master of Public Policy a year later, in 2010.
Almaz returned to the Ministry of Economy but was briefly called by the Administration of the President to be part of the Strategic Analysis Division for about 5 months in 2011, before becoming the Head of the Department of Investment Policy and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in MoE. In August 2012, he went to the US to study and further develop his knowledge and skills at George Mason University in Virginia for 16 months. Upon his return to the Ministry of Economy, Almaz was appointed Head of the Department of Strategic Planning and, from August 2014, Director of the Investment Promotion Agency, until he was appointed to his current position as Deputy Minister of Economy in April 2016.