Just like in Alpine Switzerland, there is also a ski industry in the high mountains of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, and it’s getting some help from the Swiss.
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I have a wealth of experience as a journalist working in Switzerland and enjoy producing videos, articles and podcasts on a range of subjects, recently focused mainly on politics and the environment.
Born in the UK, I studied law at Nottingham University, then went on to attend the first-ever post-graduate radio journalism college in London. After working as a radio journalist in the UK and then Switzerland from 1984 to 1995, I returned to the UK to complete a post-graduate diploma in film at Bournemouth Film School. I have been working as a video journalist ever since.
Eight years ago, a dedicated ski instructor from the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden started a winter tourism project in Kyrgyzstan to create jobs in the cold season. Edda Hergarten took fellow instructors with her to teach the Kyrgyz people how to ski. Now about 40 of the locals are instructors themselves.
At first the visiting Swiss instructors paid all their own expenses and worked for free, but in 2019 the programme became part of an official aid project of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), in partnership with the Swiss development organisation Helvetas. From 2019 to 2023, the Helvetas Sustainable Winter Tourism Development ProjectExternal link paid the ski instructors’ expenses, but they still worked for free.
In all, 100 Kyrgyz students have received instruction since 2019. This is Edda Hergarten’s story.
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Djoomart Otorbaev, a government minister and “special representative on foreign investments”, spoke to swissinfo about Kyrgyzstan’s often-troubled transition. Switzerland has helped Kyrgyzstan to adapt by representing the republic at the Bretton Woods institutions – the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In 1991, Askar…
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