On February 27, 2020, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on measures aimed at reducing poverty through entrepreneurship development.

As is known, any country has a low-income population. And in Uzbekistan, a certain part of people lacks funds.

To improve the wellbeing of our people, such programs as “Every family entrepreneur”, “Youth is our future”, “Obod qishloq” (Prosperous village), “Obod makhalla” (Prosperous neighborhood), on development of household economy were adopted. Over the past two years, within the framework of family entrepreneurship development program, preferential loans for almost 10 trillion soums were allocated from budgetary funds. This helped to ensure employment, sources of income for families.

For many years, poverty in the country has been a closed theme. The Head of the state on January 24 this year in his Address to the Oliy Majlis openly spoke on this theme and for the first time identified the priority task of poverty reduction.

At the meeting, issues of systematic organization of work in this direction were discussed.

“According to preliminary estimates, 12-15 percent or 4-5 million population of our country is in a state of poverty. This means that their daily income does not exceed 10-13 thousand soums. Or, for example, a family can have a car and livestock, but if one person gets sick, then at least 70 percent of family’s income goes to treatment. Can such a family be called prosperous? Every day, as President, I am concerned about the question: do our people have enough money for such necessities of life as food, treatment, education and children’s clothes?” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In order to effectively implement measures to support socially vulnerable and low-income families, to widely engage the population in entrepreneurship, the Ministry for Supporting Makhalla and Family has been established by the decree of the President of February 18, 2020. A vertical system has been established in this area with introduction of posts responsible for entrepreneurship development and poverty reduction at the level of makhalla, district (city), region and the country.

At the same time, a secretariat and the post of Deputy Prime Minister for financial and economic issues and poverty reduction have recently been organized in the government structure.

“Reducing poverty does not mean raising salaries or benefits, mass issuing loans. First of all, it is necessary to educate the population in professions, increase financial literacy, encourage people to do business, improve infrastructure, the quality of education and treatment, and introduce a system of targeted distribution of benefits”, the Head of the state emphasized.

To this end, medium- and long-term poverty reduction strategies are being developed jointly with the United Nations, the World Bank and other international organizations.

The urgent need for analyzing the real conditions and the situation in the context of each makhalla, district, city and region was noted. The first area of work is the collection of data on the real situation of poverty, that is, the number of low-income families, the second is the compilation of maps reflecting the potential, natural resources, infrastructural capabilities of districts and cities.

“We need to create all conditions for people to work, become rich and live with dignity”, the President said.

It was noted that next to densely populated areas where entrepreneurship is well developed, small industrial zones will be organized on the basis of empty and non-agricultural land. 100 billion soums will be allocated from the budget for the creation of necessary infrastructure. Land in the zones will be sold to entrepreneurs at a market value with the right to own. If this experience is justified, an additional 150 billion soums will be allocated in the second half of the year.

The Ministry of Economy and Industry was entrusted jointly with khokims to identify empty land for new small industrial zones and provide them with infrastructure.

Instructions were given on providing land to the poor, taken out of circulation, on construction of artesian wells and boreholes at places.

The most important issue is poverty reduction through training the population in entrepreneurship, formation of professional skills.

There are currently around 1.4 million officially unemployed women and youth in the country. Among women, the unemployment rate is 13, among youth – 15 percent. These indicators are high in Fergana, Samarkand, Andijan, Kashkadarya and Tashkent regions.

At the same time, there is a shortage of personnel: the construction sector lacks 104 thousand, the communal sector – 71 thousand, the service sector – 68 thousand, light industry – 46 thousand specialists.

At the meeting, it was noted that in order to meet the need for qualified personnel, employment of the population, it is necessary to organize entrepreneurship courses for the unemployed in each region.

Upon completion of training, a competition will be announced by the Small Business Development Agency, a grant of 20 million soums will be allocated for the best project. Khokims will also provide grants to promising entrepreneurial projects at the expense of the local budget.

For single and large women, other unemployed who have expressed a desire to find a profession, vocational training courses will be organized on such essential crafts in everyday life as sewing, culinary, and hairdressing. For this, premises will be allocated in makhalla assemblies’ buildings or other structures. They will be provided with necessary equipment.

The Ministry for Supporting the Makhalla and Family has been instructed to develop a vocational training program in makhalla guzars and create lists of applicants.

The work on organizing vocational training centers has been criticized. So, there is no such an institution in 11 districts of Karakalpakstan, 9 districts of Bukhara, Tashkent regions, 7 districts of Surkhandarya and 5 districts of Jizzakh region.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted the importance of actively involving non-governmental organizations in creation of vocational training centers. It was entrusted to hold a competition for the best curriculum among NGOs and to allocate grants from the Employment Promotion Fund to its winners.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations has been given the task of organizing “Ishga Markhamat” monocenters and vocational training centers in each region, teaching the unemployed not only knowledge and skills by profession, but also, if necessary, foreign languages.

It was determined that 70 percent of the funds for family entrepreneurship programs will be directed to small and medium-sized business projects that provide jobs for the poor. At the same time, enterprises hiring people with low incomes will be given preferences for bank loans.

Information technology has long become a separate area of business. In this regard, the need for creating interactive mobile applications and business navigators for self-employed was indicated.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Agency for Development of Small Business and Entrepreneurship have been instructed to develop, together with commercial banks, business projects that are understandable to the general public. These projects should have solutions with calculations of expenses and revenues, necessary production capacities, production volumes and other issues have been planned.

The necessity of widespread promotion of business projects during the dialogue at places, through the media and social networks, was noted.

Suggestions were made to increase the number of shopping and entertainment centers and mobile sale centers, and to remove unnecessary restrictions on such activities.

The Agency for Development of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the Business Ombudsman, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Prime Minister’s Office have been instructed to act as a bridge between the state and business, and comprehensively promote entrepreneurial initiatives.

Starting from March 1 this year, a rating system for the activities of economic complex bodies and the Entrepreneurship Development Index in the regions is being introduced. Through open and secret polls among the population, the attitude of people to organizations of the economic complex will be studied. According to the results of the surveys, the activities of the leaders of the economic complex in the region will be assessed as “exemplary”, “good”, “satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory”. Those who receive a positive rating will be encouraged, a negative rating will be punished. The results of the assessment will be discussed twice a year at the meetings of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis, regional councils of people’s deputies and in the government.

Information of responsible persons was heard and appropriate measures were identified on the issues discussed at the meeting.