The World Bank will offer $171 million in aid to Kyrgyzstan over the next four years, the bank said Friday, mainly aimed at helping the government\'s program to reduce widespread poverty in this Central Asian nation. \"Despite a relatively strong economic performance and pro-poor growth, with poorer people increasing their incomes faster than average, huge challenges remain for the country,\" the World Bank said in a statement. \"Investment has been limited, and infrastructure and social service systems have been slowly deteriorating since independence.\" Most of the money will be offered to this former Soviet republic as grants, the bank said. The new assistance strategy \"reflects a maturing of the World Bank\'s relations with the Kyrgyz Republic, with a stronger upfront effort on helping the government to design its own development actions, and then providing funding and technical support to make these activities happen,\" Dennis de Tray, World Bank country director for the Kyrgyz Republic, said in the statement. At a news conference Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Joomart Otorbayev noted that Kyrgyzstan\'s external debt is nearly $1.5 billion — or 95 percent of the country\'s annual gross domestic product. He said Kyrgyzstan aims to gradually borrow less money so annual credits are around 2-3 percent of the GDP (news - web sites) instead of the current 8 percent of GDP. (AP)