Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The ongoing pandemic has left its mark on all spheres of life of people and organizations, indicating the need to accelerate transformations, develop new technologies and introduce innovations. During a pandemic, unprecedented changes are taking place in people's lives, habits and preferences. And this, in turn, has an impact on related industries. Our proposal for mitigating the effects of the pandemic is Startup Initiatives.

Startups play a vital role in developing technology and driving innovation. At the current stage of economic development, innovative entrepreneurship (startups) is rightfully considered the most significant driving force of socio-economic development.

In the year of the development of the digital economy, the Startup Initiatives support program, taking into account the pandemic, will be held completely online for the first time. This format is a great practice for all participating teams and a practical step towards digitalization.

One area that will be seriously impacted by the pandemic will be employment, as economic restructuring is underway and as the economy revives, some jobs may simply disappear. Therefore, this year the Startup Initiatives program will become a platform for the exchange of knowledge and training specialists and technological projects for the new economic realities, ie. business transformation by forcing collaboration between science, education and manufacturing.

Changing conditions and consumer preferences during the pandemic have a major impact on the business processes and infrastructure of enterprises and organizations, forcing them to further reduce costs and look for new ways of working to stay afloat. By generating feedback in the form of requests for new technologies and developments, the program plans to help businesses and organizations reduce costs, digitize key business processes, and find talent to solve problems.

This year, the work of the program will be organized in all regions of the republic, in the city of Tashkent and the Republic of Karakalpakstan, and will be carried out in cooperation with the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the Ministry of Innovative Development, the Agency for Youth Affairs of Uzbekistan , The Yoshlar-kelajagimiz Foundation, the Center for Support of Youth Entrepreneurship of Uzbekistan, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, the Technological Park of Software Products and Information Technologies (IT Park) and their territorial divisions in the field.

The best 40 projects across the country, based on the results of the final demonstrations / presentations of their projects, will receive targeted grants up to 50 million soums for the implementation of their startups (up to 3 projects from each region and up to 10 projects in Tashkent). Grants are provided by the Yoshlar-kelajagimiz Foundation and the United Nations Development Program in Uzbekistan at the expense of funds allocated by the Government of Japan.

Additional information about the support program, project selection criteria and requirements for participants is available at www.startupinitiatives.uz. Applications are accepted until September 16, 2020.

The Startup Initiative support program has been in existence for 5 years and this year is being implemented within the framework of the joint UNDP and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations project “Promotion of youth employment in Uzbekistan”, funded by the Government of the Russian Federation.