Dear Mr. Steve Johnson, Chair of PAGE Management Board!

Dear Mr. Asad Naqvi, Head of PAGE Secretariat!

Dear government representatives of PAGE countries!

Dear PAGE funding partners representatives!

Dear PAGE family members from different countries!

Good afternoon, good evening!

My name is Louise Chamberlain, Resident Representative of UNDP in the Kyrgyz Republic. It is my pleasure and honour to join you today at this PAGE family gathering, dedicated to the launch of PAGE 2022 annual report.

UNDP has been a leading agency of PAGE in the Kyrgyz Republic since 2017 and collaborating with UNEP, UNIDO, ILO and UNITAR to support the country’s journey along the Green Economy path. The Green Economy is indeed a key means to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and it is heartening that the Kyrgyz Republic is on this path despite the challenges it faces.

PAGE, as a full-fledged UN initiative played a good role in building initial blocks of Green Economy in the Kyrgyz Republic, and UNDP Kyrgyzstan continues cooperating with the government, development partners and civil society, business and private sector along this long journey. I would like to highlight three points:

Firstly, PAGE impact at development policy level in the Kyrgyz Republic has been remarkable, no doubt. It was with PAGE support, that the country reflected Inclusive Green Economy into its long-term Strategy till 2040, mid-term national programme till 2026 and developed and adopted the first national Green Economy Programme for 2019-2023.

Secondly, PAGE’s key focus since 2021 and up to now has been on sustainable or green finance agenda to address the implementation challenges of these policies. Developing countries are often the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but have the least capacity to address it. Green finance can provide much-needed support for climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, enabling these countries to transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient economies. In the Kyrgyz Republic, enabling environment for green finance extremely important given the current level of well-being, prevalence of small scale businesses limiting a space for just transition.

PAGE has taken the first step towards building a National Green Finance Vehicle, working in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the Union of Banks. This effort is will be combined with UNDP's Green Project Preparation Facility, which provides capacity building assistance to SMEs and promotes the development of green businesses. The goal is to increase the flow of green financial resources from both domestic and international sources, including banking, micro-credit, insurance, and investment sectors, together with delivering relevant capacities of the private sector to access green funding.

Thirdly, in undertaking these initiatives, people-to-people approach through knowledge and experience sharing and learning has been very inspiring. In 2022, PAGE supported a very successful South-to-South Cooperation between Mongolia and Kyrgyz Republic, enabling finance sector and government representatives bring a good wealth of knowledge of mobilizing green finance for sustainable development and replicate it in the context of the Kyrgyz Republic, as relevant. Green Economy forum in November 2022 served as a Central Asian platform for more exchanges and learning among Georgian, Kazakstani, Kyrgyzstani and Mongolian green finance peers from the banking sector and civil society organizations.

UNDP, as a leading agency of PAGE in the Kyrgyz Republic, is committed to support a Green and Inclusive Economic Transformation in line with the SDGs in the Kyrgyz Republic, both as part of PAGE and beyond PAGE.

Quoting UN Secretary General "Green economy not to be feared, but an opportunity to be embraced. The momentum for transformational change is growing,” “Green economy is the future.”