BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan will allocate 20.1 billion soms for repayment of the public debt in 2017, Minister of Finance Adylbek Kasymaliev said at the public hearing of the country’s draft budget for the next year. Of these, 11 billion soms will be allocated for the repayment of the external debt and 9 billion for the domestic debt. In subsequent years, this amount will grow to 26.9 billion soms in 2018 and to 29.2 billion soms in 2019.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — The top U.S. diplomat for Central Asia says the region’s relative stability means it often does not get much attention, but that a top priority when the next U.S. president takes office will be to explain the area’s importance to that new administration, the Voice of America reported on August 30.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — Enhancing the professional development of journalists, training young reporters, making greater use of multimedia, establishing commercial departments as part of editorial offices, and creating an alternative system of newspaper distribution were some of the recommendations presented by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan in their survey on the impact of the financial crisis on the country’s independent media, the OSCE Office said.

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TEHRAN (TCA) — Armenia, a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, says it is working on a plan with Iran to create a free economic zone between the two countries, Iran’s PressTV news agency reported on August 29.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) is launching a new Global initiative named “Coping with water scarcity in agriculture: a global framework for action in a changing climate” during the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP22) in Morocco, which will be held in November, the FAO office in Tajikistan said on August 30.

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