A fund for the development of youth entrepreneurship will be established in Uzbekistan

By the decision of the President of Uzbekistan, a state-targeted fund for the development of youth entrepreneurship will be established.

According to the decision signed on February 14 regarding the "Measures to Improve the System of Supporting Business Projects Aimed at Ensuring Youth Entrepreneurship and Their Employment," this fund will be established on the basis of the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Fund, under the Agency for Youth Affairs.

The fund's resources will amount to the equivalent of 100 million US dollars from designated sources. Ensuring the employment of at least 50,000 young people and engaging them in entrepreneurship will be the main effectiveness indicator of its activities.

Land plots will be allocated through electronic online auction sales established for placing business projects aimed at providing services along designated rivers, canals, and coastlines, as well as organizing entertainment and recreation areas.

From the funds allocated to the Fund by the Agency for Youth Affairs, a venture fund will be established under the Fund that finances promising startup projects of young people, with a charter capital equivalent to 10 million US dollars.

On February 14, the President of Uzbekistan announced that during a meeting with youth, he signed three major documents that would usher in a completely new era in youth entrepreneurship. According to one of them, the Fund for the Development of Youth Entrepreneurship will be established, with 100 million dollars allocated to it. Now, young entrepreneurs will be granted preferential loans of up to 2.5 billion soums, and investments of up to 2 billion soums will be made in the startup projects of proactive youth.

In the past 8 years in Uzbekistan, the number of young entrepreneurs has tripled, and today young people make up almost 40 percent of business representatives. The number of unemployed youth has halved. The number of neighborhoods free from unemployment has reached 1,889.