Turning Ideas into Businesses

Excerpts from the article follow:

In Tashkent Oblast (region), the local office of the Business Women's Association of Uzbekistan (BWA) used part of a $10,000 grant to hold 3-day training seminars for 130 women and 19 men in nine districts, and provide consultation services to 356 women interested in opening their own businesses.

The program provided a range of information designed to bring rural women up to speed on the rules and requirements of starting a new business. The seminars included information on accounting procedures, tax issues, entrepreneurs’ rights, business planning, and bank loan application....

Despite high levels of education and a surfeit of entrepreneurial spirit, many women in Uzbekistan lack access to capital and basic information on what it takes to start a new business, says Mekhri Khudayberdiyeva, ADB Gender Specialist, Uzbekistan Resident Mission....

Over 100 new farms were created and over 200 women found jobs as a result of the Bukhara training and consultations. Across Uzbekistan, about 80% of rural women, trained under the GAD initiative, joined newly created credit unions, and 84 of them have received loans from local banks...