Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 26 November, a business forum “Establishing an open dialogue with the business community as a guarantee of achieving the planned economic reforms” was held in Tashkent.

With the participation of representatives of relevant ministries and departments, industry experts and entrepreneurs, issues of promoting the implementation of reforms in Uzbekistan, supporting business entities, further improving the business environment, and the development of women’s entrepreneurship were discussed.

The event was organized by the Yuksalish National Movement together with the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights and Legal Interests of Entrepreneurships, the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan, and the representative office of the Fund named after Conrad Adenauer Central Asia.

As noted, in recent years, the country has been carrying out large-scale work to further develop entrepreneurship, create an enabling environment for attracting investment and doing business, as well as to strengthen legal guarantees of the legitimate interests of entrepreneurs.

Including, the tax system has been reformed indigenous, the procedure for obtaining permits has been significantly forgiven. The Institute of the Commissioner under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of business entities was established.

Under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the State Fund for Supporting the Development of Entrepreneurship has been created. The rates of state customs duties were halved, import duties were introduced at a zero rate for 3,550 items of goods and excise tax at a zero rate for 1,222 types of goods.

 In addition, the Republican Council for the Coordination of the Activities of Supervisory Authorities was abolished, unscheduled inspections related to the financial and economic activities of business entities were canceled, the punishment in the form of deprivation of the right to engage in entrepreneurial activities was abolished.

By a decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan from 22 January 2018, a moratorium on checking the financial and economic activities of business entities for a period of two years is declared.

On large idle, free and inefficiently used facilities and land areas, 143 small industrial zones were organized, as well as 21 industrial, agricultural and tourist zones.

The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved the Concept for improving the tax policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which provides for the improvement of tax administration, reduction of the tax burden.

In order to carry out the tasks and activities outlined in the decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures to further strengthen guarantees of labor rights and support women’s entrepreneurial activity”, women’s entrepreneurship centers were organized under women’s committees in 14 regions. More than 18 thousand girls and women attended short-term courses. As of 9 months of 2019, the number of women who have established entrepreneurial activity is 38 thousand 267. They created more than 58 thousand jobs. In January-September 2019, commercial banks allocated 79 trillion 924 billion 542 million soums of credit funds to 79 thousand 645 women.

Due to the resources of the Public Fund for the Support of Women in 2018 and 2019, 5 billion 44 women were allocated 119 billion 560 million soums of loans.

Despite this, a number of negative factors still remain in this direction. During the forum, it was noted the importance of jointly solving systemic problems that impede the widespread involvement of the population in entrepreneurial activity, including through the establishment of an active dialogue between government bodies and entrepreneurs.

Suggestions, recommendations, foreign practices for further improving the sphere, solving local problems, presented during the forum by representatives of the business community, independent experts, will be summarized and transferred to the responsible structures.