Presidential proposal to establish UNESCO University

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev proposed establishing a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) University in Kyrgyzstan during his speech at the UN agency's conference in Paris on Monday. "I would like to propose establishing a UNESCO University, similar to the UN University in Tokyo. It could become one of the leading universities in the world and distance learning could make it widely accessible," Akayev said in a speech during the 32nd session of the UNESCO General Conference. The call has been endorsed by the government. "Our president always states that Kyrgyzstan can only develop through the development of human resources, and all the democratic and economic reforms are aimed at it," Dosaly Esenaliev, the head of the Kyrgyz presidential press service, told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek. Esenaliev added that establishing such a regional university in Kyrgyzstan could create opportunities for mobilising of the country's educational and scientific potential. The initiative hopes to capitalise on high literacy rates and the prevalence of higher education in the mountainous Central Asian state. UNESCO has founded six chairs at a leading Kyrgyz university, five of them in Bishkek and one in the second largest city of Osh in the south. Subjects covered are: ecology education, gender issues, human rights, world cultures and religions, democracy in a multiethnic society and sustainable development of mountainous regions. Vladimir Kushnirenko, UNESCO's Central Asia project coordinator, told IRIN that the initiative had come from the Kyrgyz leadership and that the idea needed developing. "In order to push ahead this initiative Kyrgyzstan needs to develop a comprehensive project," Krushnirenko said. "The idea is very good," he maintained, noting, however, that the whole process of creating such an institution would be a long-term project. UNESCO is said to be part of an international conference in Kyrgyzstan to be held next June under the title "Eurasia in the 21st Century: the Dialogue of Cultures or the Conflict of Civilisations". This conference was expected, said Akayev, to open a broad discussion between distinguished scholars, cultural and religious leaders and politicians.