The whole year’s work depends on a good start in spring. The annual work deployment meeting of Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia (hereinafter referred to as RCEECA) was held via video link on March 4, 2022. All staff of the Urumqi Center, Almaty Sub-center, Bishkek Sub-center and Dushanbe Sub-center as well as relevant personnel of Karakalpak Branch of Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan attended the meeting. Chen Xi, Director of RCEECA, Murat Zhumataev, President of Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan, Abdusattor Saidov, Vice President of Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, and Nagmet Aimbetov, President of Karakalpak Branch of Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, and Rawshan Ramazhanova, Director of Soil and Agrochemical Research Institute of Kazakhstan attended the meeting, and Liu Wenjiang, Executive Deputy Director of RCEECA, presided over the meeting.

At the meeting, the Sub-centers in Almaty, Bishkek and Dushanbe respectively reported the main work and existing problems in 2021 from such aspects as operation management, platform construction, academic exchanges, scientific research progress and achievements and output, as well as thoughts and suggestions on the work plan in 2022.

Director Chen Xi expressed gratitude and full affirmation for the progress made by the three Sub-centers and all partners under the impact of COVID-19, and delivered a keynote report on the work plan in 2022. He stressed that in daily work, great efforts should be made to the platform operation and data management and regular personnel training to ensure the normal operation of field observation and standardized storage of observation data; meanwhile, he also pointed out that it was necessary to continue to deepen the cooperation of scientific research projects, promote the output and application of achievements, and expand the popularity and influence of RCEECA by increasing academic exchanges and media publicity; finally, he clarified and deployed the main tasks, key work and expected achievements of the four countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in 2022.

The attendees had extensive discussions on the work reports and annual work arrangements of the Sub-centers and put forward opinions and suggestions on specific work, and they all agreed that RCEECA achieved satisfactory results in all aspects in 2021 and the keynote report charted the course for this year’s work and the future development, and they expressed that they would conscientiously understand and implement the requirements of the meeting, further sort out and clarify specific work tasks, implement post responsibilities and resource allocation, strengthen internal and external cooperation, increase achievements and output and external publicity, and jointly promote the better development of RCEECA.