Kyrgyzstan declares 2017 Year of Morality, Education, Culture

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev signed a decree to declare 2017 the Year of Morality, Education and Culture, the presidential press service said on Thursday.

The decree said that the world trend and modern technologies offer the country a great opportunity, but along with positive changes they would generate new challenges.

"The strategic development of the country largely depends on the ability of the state and the society to focus directly on the person, his morality and spirituality," according to the decree.

"The main wealth of our country is its citizens. And at this stage the formation of a comprehensively developed personality, as proved by centuries' spiritual and moral values of the people of Kyrgyzstan and the modern world, is particularly important," the decree added.

The document also said that special efforts should be focused on the children and youth as the Kyrgyz citizens below and around the age of 25 make up more than half of the country's population.

"In order to make Kyrgyzstan successfully developed, its citizens, representatives of the younger generation should be well-educated ... in the spirit of tolerance to different views and opinions and, of course, they also need to know the history and culture of the people. Therefore, the most important task of the state is to create a modern educational, cultural and information policy ... based on their own history and culture," the decree added.

The government of Kyrgyzstan is expected to form an organizing committee and issue a plan of action to achieve these goals.

Kyrgyzstan declared 2016 the Year of History and Culture. Endi