Positive image of regions must be created to promote quality investment projects: FM

AKIPRESS.COM - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic held an online meeting of Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev with governors of regions and mayors of cities, the foreign ministry said.
Kazakbaev indicated that the Ministry pays special attention to promoting the potential of the regions and conducts purposeful work jointly with foreign missions of Kyrgyzstan to attract foreign investment, promoting the export and tourism potential of the country. At the same time, he informed about the Plan of Anti-Crisis Measures and Step-by-Step Actions adopted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, which was developed in order to assist in stabilizing the socio-economic situation in the country.
In accordance with the Plan of Anti-Crisis Measures and Step-by-Step Actions, the Ministry, jointly with foreign missions of the Kyrgyz Republic, is actively working to assist in overcoming problems in the economy, stabilizing the epidemiological situation due to the spread of COVID-19, etc.
The Head of the Foreign Ministry also informed that in a difficult epidemiological period for the country the Ministry jointly with foreign missions of the Kyrgyz Republic mobilized work to provide the country with appropriate personal protective equipment, attract humanitarian aid in the form of ventilators, oxygen concentrators, test systems, reagents for laboratory tests, PCR tests and other medical equipment, including through twinning and friendly relations between the regions of the Kyrgyz Republic and foreign countries.
Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev paid special attention to the formation of a positive image of the regions through the development and further promotion of high-quality investment projects in priority sectors of the regions, meaningful presentations with an emphasis on trade and economic component, and also emphasized the importance of establishing interaction between relevant ministries and departments with the plenipotentiary representatives of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic in areas to achieve results.
Kazakbaev focused on the activation of existing agreements on establishment of twinning relations between regions / cities of the Kyrgyz Republic and regions / cities of foreign countries. He outlined the possibilities of developing the trade and economic potential of the regions within the framework of bilateral documents.
The meeting participants were informed about the efforts of the structural units of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic and foreign institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic to attract foreign investment, promote exports and tourism and other tasks related to economic diplomacy, undertaken in order to provide maximum assistance to the relevant state bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic.
In their speeches, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic and mayors of cities in the regions provided information on the ongoing work to attract investment, on projects currently being implemented in the regions, on export potential, and also identified the existing problematic issues. In a separate order, at the request of Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, the heads of the regions identified a number of problematic issues that they face when performing the above tasks.
The leadership of the ministries and departments, in turn, answered the questions of plenipotentiary representatives and mayors, as well as provided detailed information on the criteria/standards for the formation of investment projects and other issues related to the attraction and protection of investments. At the same time, they emphasized the importance of the work carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist in attracting foreign investments and protecting foreign investors.
Further, within the framework of the meeting, a substantive dialogue with the participants took place, during which both problematic issues and possible solutions were voiced, as well as a number of proposals for improving and promoting the potential of the regions.
Kazakbaev, summarizing the results of the online meeting, focused the attention of the heads of regions on the concentration of their efforts:
1) preparation of updated "passports" of regions with a focus on unlocking the potential of each individual region / oblast in terms of trade and economic, export-oriented and production-investment components;
2) the formation of an updated database of investment projects, which must be revised taking into account the unified format proposed by the Investment Promotion and Protection Agency;
and the expediency of organizing a series of online meetings on the development of the potential of each region in the format of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic - Foreign missions of the Kyrgyz Republic - leadership of a particular region was expressed.
At the end of the meeting, Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev expressed gratitude to all participants for their active participation and open dialogue. Expressed hope for further mutual cooperation in promoting the interests of the country's regions and support of plenipotentiary representatives in providing meaningful materials in the form of presentations, short videos about the region or city (in Russian, English, and, if possible, in other foreign languages), high-quality projects for their further elaboration through the foreign missions of the Kyrgyz Republic. He confirmed the readiness of the Ministry to hold such meetings both in a "live" format and through the videoconferencing and the intention to provide maximum assistance and work through the requests of the regions.
The participants of the event, noting the importance of this online meeting, expressed their hope for their regular holding.