The memorandum of understanding foresees cooperation and commitment to promote the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda and its goal 16 aiming at the creation of peaceful, just and strong institutions, to support the implementation of the Strategy of Development of the Jogorku Kenesh in line with the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic.  

“Switzerland's rich experience with democratic governance can serve as a basis for exchange and collaboration between our two countries. I am very glad to announce that Switzerland has responded favorably to the request of the Kyrgyz Parliament to assist in strengthening parliamentary democracy and improving citizens’ engagement in decision-making processes,” – said Ambassador Holenstein.

With financial support of Switzerland, UNDP will implement a ten-year prospective project “Strong and Inclusive Parliamentary Democracy”, primarily aimed at further enhancing parliamentary democracy in the Kyrgyz Republic by making it more inclusive, accountable and responsive to the needs of the citizens. The first phase of the project foresees close collaboration and expert support to the activities of three parliamentary committees, namely the committee on constitutional legislation, state structure and judicial legal affairs, the committee on social affairs, education, science, culture and healthcare as well as the committee on finance and budget.

In addition, the project will work actively on enhancing capacity of Public Councils and will launch a special Civic Action Fund to provide citizens with an opportunity to participate in the decision- and policy-making process, ensure effective monitoring and influencing the performance of parliamentary and state accountability institutions. This will allow citizens to hold the Parliament and government accountable and benefit from a more accessible, effective and responsive government.

Contact information:

Aigul Baiburaeva, UNDP Policy Advisor, tel.: 0312 394140 (ext. 152), email:  aigul.baiburaeva@undp.org

Elena Zakirova, Program Officer of the Embassy of Switzerland, tel. 0312 301036, email: elena.zakirova@eda.admin.ch

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The Government of Switzerland provides assistance for the development of the Kyrgyz Republic and supports projects in areas such as health, private sector development, public sector reform, and infrastructure.

A well-balanced fiscal policy lays the ground for broad-based economic growth. In view of strengthening the capacities of the Kyrgyz authorities in formulating and implementing  effective macroeconomic policies, in capturing and assessing fiscal risks and in promoting fiscal transparency, this five-day training, tailored to the needs of the Kyrgyz Republic, was organized for representatives of Government agencies directly involved in the compilation of fiscal statistics.

The first workshop on this topic, in which six Kyrgyz officials participated, took place in November 2016 in Baku. Following this event, the IMF undertook a series of in-depth consultations with the Kyrgyz authorities in May this year, in order to further enhance the fiscal data compilation and to define the next steps to be taken to continue improving fiscal transparency.

Mrs. Ivana Jablonská, the project manager from the Statistics Department of the IMF congratulated the Kyrgyz authorities on the significant progress they have made in recent years in improving the coverage, timeliness and consistency of fiscal statistics. She highly appreciated the commitment of the Kyrgyz compilers and stressed the importance of inter-agency co-operation in the compilation of various data subsets of macroeconomic statistics.

The officials of the Ministry of Finance, National Statistical Committee, National Bank and the Social Fund demonstrated keen interest in learning the conceptual framework of the international standards and best compilation practices. The appropriate combination of lectures and case studies helped them to apply the newly acquired theoretical knowledge on practical exercises adapted to the Kyrgyz reality. The work on case studies provided a good opportunity to understand the practical application of fiscal statistics for the national policy making and cross-country comparisons.