Bilateral meeting with the Minister of Agriculture of Kyrgyzstan - His Excellency Askarbek Janibekov

Samarkand – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and His Excellency Askarbek Janibekov, Minister of Agriculture of Kyrgyzstan, met on the sidelines of the International Conference on Food Security (ICFS), which took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on 7-8 September 2023.

The Minister underlined the importance of FAO in supporting Members in transforming national agrifood systems and briefed the Director-General on the implementation progress of FAO projects related to fishery, aquaculture, and locust management in Kyrgyzstan. The Minister highlighted the significant potential for the fishery sector to enhance export competitiveness and diversification, contributing to the overall socio-economic development of the country. He noted that fishery and aquaculture play critical roles in creating employment opportunities in Kyrgyzstan.

The Minister highlighted key areas for strengthening  cooperation with FAO including capacity building and knowledge transfer in the fishery and aquaculture sector, as well as agriculture digitalization  to improve agricultural services for farmers. In this regard, the Minister informed that  a new position of Deputy Minister for Digitalization had been established in Kyrgyzstan.

The Director-General thanked the Minister for the briefing and all the efforts being made. He expressed FAO’s readiness to continue providing technical support to Kyrgyzstan to ensure more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems.

The Director-General also proposed an initiative to implement the Technical Cooperation Program on Agriculture Digitalization in Kyrgyzstan, highlighting the advantages of digital registration of agricultural lands and offering the Organization’s full technical assistance in this area.