European agencies plan to spend more than 13 million euros ($15.5 million) in Kyrgyzstan\'s Batken Oblast, the poorest in the country, over the next three years and 900,000 euros in Issyk-Kul Oblast. The funding is to be spent on the reduction of poverty and general development programs, with particular emphasis on training officials and the public how to monitor expenditures. Activists of local NGOs involved in development work have commented that European aid money would be better spent on social and economic development in rural areas, although the European Union has already committed 9 million euros to rural development and the World Bank is contributing $15 million, with an additional $15 million earmarked for grants to small towns. (KyrgyzInfor)