NEWS

26 June 2007

CONFERENCE ON SUPPORT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS HELD

In the report delivered by President Karimov at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers devoted to the results of country's socioeconomic development in 2006, among the priority economic reforms for 2007 the President specifically mentioned all-round support of small business and private enterprise development, and based on these, the improvement of population's welfare and employment indicators.

This was discussed during the recently held conference on the efficiency of entrepreneurial activity of women, UzA reported. The meeting was organised by the Women's Committee of Uzbekistan, Tadbirkor Ayol (Woman Entrepreneur) Businesswomen's Association, and other organizations. Among the participants of the conference were members of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis (parliament), the representatives of the state customs and tax committees, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Uzbekistan, Central Bank, and National Association of Non-Governmental Nonprofit Organisations of Uzbekistan.

In reinforcing the status and role of women in the society the main guide is the Presidential Decree dated 25 May 2004 "On additional measures to support the activity of Women's Committee of Uzbekistan". The document has become an important factor in improving the efficiency of work on protection of women's rights, support of their active participation in socio-political, economic and cultural life, and further improvement of their spiritual ad intellectual level.

The legal framework has been created in the country for gender equality and equal opportunities for men and women in all spheres of the society's life. Special attention is being paid to the employment problems. Thanks to the opportunities opened by the initiative providing framework for home-based labour, some 262,000 new jobs have been created since last year. Women entrepreneurs who contribute largely to the country's progress have received some 42 billion soums in loans from commercial banks.

For the purpose of developing women's entrepreneurship, attention is being given to the deepening of their knowledge and qualifications as business-ladies. In the past few years over 40,000 women attended professional trainings and now about 80% of them are employed. Around 30,000 women improved their qualifications in the sphere of business. Of them 75% today operate their own businesses.

The opportunities created in Uzbekistan for small business and private enterprise entities contribute to women's activation as entrepreneurs. Tadbirkor Ayol Association provides them all possible support in this. In particular, it has developed a special project aimed at expanding the knowledge of market economy among women entrepreneurs in Ferghana region.

During the conference many women entrepreneurs received answers to the questions they were interested in.

Among the participants of the conference was Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, the Chairman of the Women's Committee S. Inamova.

Source: UzReport