The Chui Province of the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan recently submitted an application to the NEAR Secretariat through the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in Seoul, South Korea, to become an Associate Member of NEAR.

Chui Province's application for associate membership will be formally voted on at the NEAR High-Level Working Committee, scheduled to be held in Liaoning, China, this year.

If Chui Province is formally admitted as an associate member, it will be the second associate member in about seven years, following the admission of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, as an associate member in 2017. This will mark the expansion of NEAR's outreach into Central and Southeast Asia, with Yangon, Myanmar, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, currently in the process of becoming associate members.

Chui Province, Kyrgyz Republic, with a population of 1,068,700 (as of 2023) and an area of 20,200 square kilometers, is located in the northern part of Kyrgyzstan, adjacent to the capital city of Bishkek. It is the most developed industrial and agricultural region in the country.

The current governor is KANAT Jumanezev, who served as Minister of the Interior of Chui Province in 2016 and Minister of the Interior of Bishkek in 2019.