BISHKEK (TCA) — Prior to 2016, no country in the Caucasus or Central Asia had developed indicators to monitor sustainable forest management on a national level. Two years later, five countries – Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan – are on board with a project from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to establish accountability systems for forest management.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will extend a US $50 million revolving loan facility to the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund for five years. The respective agreement was signed on 21 February by Andrey Beliyaninov, Chairman of the Management Board at the EDB, and Erkin Asrandiev, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund. The loan will be used to finance the Fund’s investment projects in Kyrgyzstan and its targeted programs via Kyrgyz commercial banks.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — The first meeting of EU–Tajikistan newly established Subcommittee on Development Cooperation, which took place on February 20 in Dushanbe, focused on various current aspects and future prospects of development cooperation between the two sides, the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan reported.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajik officials, with the apparent acquiescence of Turkish authorities, have forcibly and extra-judicially returned a political activist from Istanbul to Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said on February 20. The activist, Namunjon Sharipov, faces a real risk of torture and other ill-treatment in Tajikistan.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the United States and NATO have been trying to downplay the existence of Daesh (Islamic State) militants in Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported.

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ASTANA (TCA) — An official presentation of the Astana International Financial Center, timed to the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the capital of Kazakhstan, is to be held in Astana on July 5, the AIFC Governor Kairat Kelimbetov said at the Kazakh Government meeting on February 20, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

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