SMEs account for around 90 percent of all businesses worldwide, employ around 50 percent of the global workforce, generate up to 40 percent of national income in many emerging economies, and are essential contributors to job creation and economic development.
In Uzbekistan, in 2020, SMEs were the biggest source of employment, providing approximately 73.8 percent of jobs, compared to 49.7 percent in 2000. In 2020, SMEs were worth 53.9 percent of the Uzbekistani Gross Domestic Product and contributed to 27 percent of the country’s exports. In Uzbekistan, small and medium businesses are the key drivers of economic growth.
Uzbekistan set an ambitious goal to achieve the status of an upper-middle-income country by 2030, with the focus on growing a large and solid middle-class social stratum. The current reforms in Uzbekistan largely target the development of small businesses and private entrepreneurship (small and medium-sized enterprises) as SMEs have the greatest potential for becoming a real basis for forming a middle class.
In recent years, a number of government policies have been enacted to promote small business development, as it plays a key role in the development of the economy as a whole.
Financial support of small business and private entrepreneurship by banks on the basis of loans has been identified as one of the main directions of the ongoing reforms in the country. In particular, the Action Strategy for the five priority areas of further development of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2017-2021 sets the task of “further expansion of lending to small business and private entrepreneurship”.
Overall, small businesses also help to stimulate economic growth by providing employment opportunities to people who may not be employable by larger corporations. Small businesses tend to attract talent who invent new products or implement new solutions for existing ideas. In other words, they provide to the people opportunities to achieve financial independence, encourage innovation, and create employment opportunities. So The Government of Uzbekistan is trying to develop small business by simplifying and increasing the transparency of licenses and permits, and the provision of public services.