Osh – 20 May 2021 - Today a solemn ceremony was held to mark the start of construction of the fire and rescue station within the framework of cooperation between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Director of KOICA, UNDP Assistant Resident Representative, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, and the First Vice Mayor of Osh attended the ceremony. 

The construction of a new building for the fire and rescue station in Osh is being implemented as part of a joint project by KOICA and UNDP in cooperation with Korean experts and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. In cooperation with Korean experts, UNDP will build four new fire and rescue stations in the cities of Cholpon-Ata, Osh, Bishkek, and Suzak (Jalal-Abad oblast), as well as provide modern fire-fighting equipment machinery and improve the quality of fire-fighting services. The project also includes training courses to enhance the skills and knowledge of fire and rescue service personnel. Working conditions of firefighters will also be improved, based on gender equality, universal access to fire services and principles of sustainable development.

During the ceremony, the country director of Korea International Cooperation Agency Mr. Jongsu Yi noted that “With the increase of disasters around the world, strengthening a country's capabilities for disaster risk reduction has become more important to ensure the safety and lives of the people. The Kyrgyz government is also strengthening efforts to enhance national capacity in disaster risks management. I am very happy that the Korean government has joined the Kyrgyz government’s efforts through this project.”

“Many of our activities are aimed at strengthening the national capacity for disaster risk management, and projects implemented jointly with the Ministry of Emergency Situations contribute to the development of systems for monitoring and forecasting natural disasters, crisis management and disaster response services,” said Erkinbek Kasybekov, Assistant Resident Representative at UNDP Kyrgyz Republic.

UNDP will modernize fire protection facilities and equipment in order to reduce human casualties and physical damage caused by fires, as well as strengthen fire-fighting capacity to protect the vulnerable population, especially women and children.

Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic Mr. Akylbek Mazaripov said at the ceremony: “With the support of our partners KOICA and UNDP, we have achieved significant results in increasing the technical and human capacity of the Ministry. The implementation of the current project, which provides the construction of fire and rescue units, the supply of fire-fighting equipment, is very important and timely for us. Since, unfortunately, the number of fires is increasing every year and during the heating season the number of calls for fires can reach up to twenty per day. We are deeply convinced that the improvement of fire-fighting units will serve as a good help for a prompt response to fires, and most importantly, will reduce the number of deaths in fires.”