DUSHANBE, January 19, 2015, Asia-Plus -- The project, Creation of an Extended Ecological Production by Women Handicraft Cooperatives in the Kyrgyz Republic and in the Republic of Tajikistan and a Sustainable Marketing Development in Countries of Central Asia, Asia and Europe, starts a two-day training on trainers activities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan today.

According to the Delegation of the European Union t Tajikistan, the training session is being held in Bishkek and the modules will be on international quality standards of handcraft products, management and marketing of products quality, financial management and handicrafts products and branding in international markets.

The initiative aims at improving the marketing of productions produced by female handicraft cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan by increasing the competitiveness of production and services, assisting in the expansion of export, reducing informal economy and providing social stability.

The training activities will involve specialists of the institutional partners, experts and local trainers, in order to test and set up the training programs that, in the next weeks, will be delivered to Tajik and Kyrgyz female handicraft cooperatives.  The training topics have been selected based on the results of a training need survey conducted among the local Kyrgyz and Tajik handcraft cooperative involved into the project.

In February 2015, a Youth Designer Forum will be organized with the participation of the Perugia Academia of Fine Art and Italian designers who will assist and coordinate technical workshops on innovation of design of local handicrafts.  The forum will be held in Osh with the participation of Kyrgyz and Tajik representatives of local handicraft cooperatives.

The project is funded by the European Union and managed by the EU Delegation to Kyrgyzstan.