Kyrgyzstan's government said Wednesday it was in talks with China to restructure nearly $2 billion in loans after having asking Beijing for debt relief in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Deputy Prime Minister Erkin Asrandiyev said that a request for debt relief earlier this month had "found understanding" from neighbouring China, whose Export-Import Bank of China owns $1.7 billion of Kyrgyzstan's roughly $4 billion in external debt.

"Eximbank has made contact with our specialists. Work (on the request) has begun," Asrandiyev told a news conference.

Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov's office said he had asked Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to consider "easing and prolonging payments on Kyrgyzstan's external debt to China" during a phone call this month.

The Export-Import Bank of China has financed major transport and energy projects in the former Soviet Central Asian country, which has few alternative sources of foreign investment.

Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked, mountainous republic of six million people, was the first country to receive emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund after the virus outbreak.

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