Dear Partners,

Dear Journalists,

Today we celebrate the Festival of Creative Industries “Create4” which was established by the United Nations Development Programme and the Association of Creative Industries last year. Create4 is a unique extensive platform to support the entire community of creators and innovators and promote “JARATMAN KYRGYZSTAN” (transl “Creative Kyrgyzstan”) together. We appreciate the efforts of the government in supporting creative economy as a priority area and creating favorable conditions for its development. We are proud to witness the establishment of the Park of Creative industries which will enhance economic opportunities for small and medium businesses, women and youth and help to decrease the number of informal workers in this sector. 

We are inspired by the continuous growth and diversity of the creative community, supporters and like-minded partners over the last year who synergize efforts and commit to the sustained momentum toward the innovative development pathway of Kyrgyzstan. We may consider different perspectives of the creative economy, but it’s power to build solidarity and foster cohesiveness, promote intelligence and critical thinking, cultivate cross-cultural experiences and innovative products is something that we have to harness and need to build the development on. 

Those auspicious partnerships, alliances and collaborations built over the Create4 is the foundation for the sustainability and scalability of the platform. We started Create4 last year with 3 partners. Today’s Festival is organized by joint efforts of more than 30 partners and with the engagement of more than 100 organizations – private companies, state bodies, development partners, civil activists, public foundations and academia - committed to the development of creative industries in this country.   We started it in Bishkek. And now Create4 is spreading to the regions. A few weeks ago, we launched the national creative industries month with the Festival in Osh, where we celebrated a vibrant and diverse creative community of the south capital. And today we are happy to welcome representatives and government officials from many regions and cities of Kyrgyzstan who are encouraged to explore, customize and accommodate the platform and scale Create4 to their local communities.

We are also proud to host the delegations from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ready to share their knowledge and experience and interested in learning what we’ve done so far. It means that Create4 is a naturally evolving platform uniting people, cities and even countries through creativity and innovations. And we believe that it will expand and scale its impact to the whole region and Central Asia will be embraced by its constructive, creative and positive impetus. 

As the development agency we are eager to explore the impact of the creative economy on  human development as it is known that the societies that value and promote human development are also likely to inspire people to pursue work in creative endeavors. Moreover, creative industries are fueling the crosscutting domains which have spillover effects on promoting social benefits and social utilities. Thus, with the advent of digital technologies and AI, the capacity of creative work to unleash human capabilities, talents and uniqueness and foster human development makes the creative economy a unique opportunity for Kyrgyzstan to grow while integrating its tremendous cultural heritage into creative products. 

As you might notice, the concept of the Create4 this year “JARATMAN TOY” (translation: “Festival of creators”) is built on the Kyrgyz traditions familiar to almost everyone in this country from birth. That was done to remind that creativity is an inseparable part of our life, our culture and our personalities.  “Creative work is the labour of love” and we hope that today’s event will encourage participants to obtain creative skills, find their favorite jobs, innovate and invest in their own and others’ creativity for the benefit of this wonderful country. Thank you very much for your attention today.