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.

Trainings were conducted by the Health Management Strengthening Project, which is designed and financed by the Government of Switzerland and implemented by Euro Health Group and the Public Foundation “Health System Initiatives”.

The Swiss development Cooperation allocated CHF 2 million for the project to support continuous education and regulation of the health management system in Kyrgyzstan.

The purpose of the training was to prepare health facilities for a timely and coordinated response in case of disease outbreaks. Health managers learned how to use efficiently available financial and human resources while ensuring continuity of provision of medical services for other diseases.

“Thanks to this training we learned a lot. Before we worked by trial and error without any evidence base”, - said Zamira Oruntaeva, Director of Family Medicine Center of Jalal-Abad oblast. “If this training had been done earlier, we could have prevented our staff to be infected with COVID-19”.

The training allowed to discuss challenges faced by health facilities during the first and second waves of COVID-19 and to prepare strategies to improve management of next wave.