The “Francophonie Week” is the festival of the French language and cultures of the French-speaking countries, which is celebrated in the middle of March across the world. The organizers and partners have prepared a program for the broad public, which consists of 8 online events.  

French is the fifth language spoken in the world, the third language for business, spoken by more than 300 million people on five continents, and also is known as the language of diplomacy. 88 countries are members of the International Organization of Francophonie, in 29 of which French is the official language.

This year the Francophonie week will be launched in Bishkek on March 23 with the Swiss movie « Le jeu de l'amour et du hasard » (The game of love and chance) to be screened online at 17:30 in Zoom.  

Francophone Week includes various competitions of French song, dance, elocution and reading for children.

There will also be educational webinars: "Studying in France" (25 March at 11:00 am, webcast at Zoom) and "Studying at Francophone Universities" (25 March at 18:00 pm, webcast at Zoom).

The detailed program is presented below:

• French Alliance in Bishkek  - Facebook
  
• French Embassy Kyrgyzstan - webpage, Facebook
• Swiss Embassy Kyrgyzstan – Facebook

Switzerland has allocated CHF 3.5 mln (around 320 million soms) for the project to contribute to decent work and income opportunities for many people working in this area. It will help to develop cross-country skiing, ice skating, snow shoeing and other winter sport activities in Karakol destination, which then will be roll out in other regions of the country.

The event was attended by representatives of Kyrgyz authorities, international organizations, tourism businesses, civil and expert communities.

“I am confident that through our joint efforts we can achieve success in development of winter tourism. Moreover, we can make our country famous in many parts of the world and create an effective mechanism of sustainable winter tourism development", - said Kiyal Kenjematova, Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, Information, Tourism and Youth Policy.

“Tourism in Kyrgyzstan can become an important contributor to economic growth, creating income and economic opportunities for many people. Supporting the Kyrgyz Government and other Kyrgyz partners in their efforts to develop the private sector including for tourism remains one of the priorities of the Swiss cooperation”, said Olivier Bangerter, Swiss Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan.

The Swiss project will also address the issues of climate change and environmental protection. During the event, the participants were presented with main areas of work and planned activities.

The first phase of the project is designed for four years and implemented by Helvetas Kyrgyzstan.