March 15, CAREC Day was held in Bishkek: a meeting with national partners and development partners. The parties gathered to discuss opportunities for cooperation on environmental protection and sustainable development in the Central Asian region. The meeting was attended by representatives of the academic community, international organizations, related government agencies, NGOs, as well as the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Kyrgyzstan.
CAREC Executive Director Dr Iskandar Abdullayev, in his speech, expressed his gratitude to the participants, and also noted the importance of close cooperation with national partners. According to Dr Abdullayev, this allows highlighting the country's priorities in development and implementation of the projects.
CAREC Executive Director also addressed the academic community with the idea of creating the innovations and scientific research cluster in Kyrgyzstan. Dr Abdullayev noted that creating clusters in the region will help to make the work of CAREC and other environmental organizations and agencies of Central Asia more efficient. Also, the need to attract national projects to the CAREC office in Kyrgyzstan was underlined.
The State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry under the Government of Kyrgyzstan expressed its gratitude to the Executive Director of CAREC for his significant contribution to the development of cooperation in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. The staff of the Department of Water Management and Land Reclamation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Industry and Land Reclamation of Kyrgyzstan also thanked the entire CAREC team for their cooperation. In particular, for helping to increase the potential of the staff of the central office and district water management departments, as well as for promoting basin councils and the principles of integrated water resources management.
It is also worth noting that during the meeting, CAREC specialists presented the regional projects: Central Asian Leadership Program; Smart Waters; Nexus Dialogue in Central Asia; and the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Program in the Aral Sea Basin.
In addition, the information about the upcoming second Central Asia Climate Change Conference was provided. The conference will be held on April 3-4 in Tashkent. The event participants showed a keen interest in information on the current activities of the organization and ongoing projects in the countries of Central Asia.