The Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF) has provided US$2 million (2020-2022) for the Technical Assistance Program on Digital Resilience (the Program) to support transition to a more resilient digital economy in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Together with the World Bank-funded Digital CASA-Kyrgyz Republic Lending Project (US$ 25 million) which seeks to boost access to affordable internet connectivity by attracting private investment to improve regional connectivity for landlocked countries of Central Asia, the KWPF grant will help foster the digital transformation of the Kyrgyz Republic. Specifically, the KWPF grant activities will strengthen the Kyrgyz Republic’s ability to maintain, change or recover technology-dependent operational capability and ensure data security and privacy.
The 2019-2023 Cybersecurity Strategy of the Kyrgyz Republic aims to create clearly delineated organizational structures, to develop the legal and methodological basis for countering computer crimes, to develop a national cybersecurity system for critical government and non-government infrastructure, to ensure technical standardization and engage in international cooperation in the field of cybersecurity. These policy changes, as well as broad digital transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 outbreak, provide ground for holistic digital resilience initiatives.
The KWPF-funded technical assistance for strengthening digital resilience policy is expected to showcase Korea’s digital resilience achievements, smart solutions, and other international best practices and provide the Kyrgyz Government with support to define and strengthen country’s Digital Resilience legal and policy enabling environment. The Program supports the design of the Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT) and Resilience Operations Center (ROC) by helping build the necessary Government capacity in line with global best practices to ensure an effective response to digital risks and cyber threats, analyze various digital risks across critical infrastructure, and support affected organizations. The KWPF support also enables comprehensive development of human capacity and technical skills through training and knowledge sharing by catalyzing a Central Asian Digital Resilience Academy. The assistance allows to promote an integrated approach to ensure the resilience of the Digital CASA investments and manage and mitigate digital risks in the broader Digital Kyrgyzstan efforts.
The KWPF-supported Technical Assistance Program on Digital Resilience is carried out by the World Bank’s Digital Development team in support of the State Committee of Information and Communications Technologies of the Kyrgyz Republic, and in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), University of Central Asia (UCA), to benefit all stakeholders in the country.
Established in May 2013, KWPF is an initiative between Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) and the World Bank. The facility’s overall objective is to assist developing member countries of the World Bank in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth and to foster broader dialogue on economic development issues.