Swiss Cooperation with Kyrgyzstan began in 1993 shortly after Kyrgyzstan became independent and joined the Swiss-led voting group at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This special relationship was one of the reasons Kyrgyzstan became one of the focal partners for Swiss Cooperation in Central Asia.
On 14th of November 1994 an official cooperation agreement was signed between the Swiss and Kyrgyz Governments and in 1996 the Swiss Cooperation Office was opened in Bishkek. Later, the Swiss Government decided to elevate the level of Switzerland’s representation in the Kyrgyz Republic by opening an embassy. On 5th November 2012 the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic was inaugurated.
Today the Swiss Embassy supports and supervises projects of two Swiss Federal Agencies – the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Swiss assistance in Kyrgyzstan
Since 1994 Switzerland has provided more than CHF 300 million to Kyrgyzstan (more than 18 billion soms) in the form of technical, financial and humanitarian support. The financial perspective for Swiss assistance to Kyrgyzstan in 2012-2015 will be CHF 80 million.
Based on the Swiss Regional Cooperation Strategy Central Asia (2012-2015), Switzerland continues to support Kyrgyzstan in its economic, social and political transitions. The overall goal is to support the transition process in Kyrgyzstan by assisting public and private institutions at all levels to deliver better services in an equitable and effective way in the three domains of health, public sector reform and infrastructure, and private sector development.
In the Health domain, Switzerland aims to ensure equitable access and to improve the quality of health services delivered countrywide, with a focus on rural areas.
In the Public Sector Reform and Infrastructure domain, Switzerland aims to increase equitable access for citizens to services through transparent and efficient use of public resources.
In the Private Sector Development domain, Switzerland aims to strengthen the private sector, which leads to job creation, economic growth, and ultimately poverty reduction.