Dr. Salim M. Al-Malik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), met Dr. Aibek Artykbaev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, and discussed aspects of joint cooperation between ICESCO and Kyrgyzstan in the fields of education, through participation in the preparation of religious curricula and its inclusion in all educational levels in Kyrgyz public schools.

The meeting, which took place today, Tuesday, December 7, 2021, is held on the sidelines of the 14th General Conference of ICESCO due to be held on December 8 and 9, in Cairo, the Arab Republic of Egypt, under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

During the meeting, Dr. Al-Malik affirmed ICESCO’s readiness to cooperate with the Kyrgyz government in training and qualifying teachers on how to develop religious curricula for government schools and participate in preparing them to suit all educational levels. He also suggested that the President of the Kyrgyz Republic be a guest of honor in one of ICESCO’s upcoming international conferences.

For his part, Dr. Aibek Artykbaev expressed the Kyrgyz government’s keenness to cooperate with ICESCO in preparing religious curricula and including them for the first time in schools, and to employ several Kyrgyz competencies at the Organization, to allow them to strengthen their capacities and develop their expertise.

Dr. Aibek Artykbaev pointed out that the Kyrgyz Republic is fully prepared to pay the arrears of its contribution to ICESCO’s budget and to benefit from the initiative offered by the Organization to allocate a large proportion of these sums for the implementation of programs and projects for the benefit of Kyrgyzstan. He also invited the Director-General of ICESCO to visit Kyrgyzstan.

Mr. Omarbek Gabarov, Advisor to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Aydin Kalmatov, Attaché of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also attended the meeting.