President of Uzbekistan on August 17 signed resolution creating Entrepreneurship Development Support National Fund within the Cabinet of Ministers.
The goals of the Fund - strengthening the legal mechanisms for protecting and guaranteeing the activity of private entrepreneurship, introducing new instruments for their state support, facilitating access of businesses to credit resources, stimulating the creation of new jobs and further improving Uzbekistan’s financial and banking system.
The main objective of the Fund is to provide SMEs with financial support, both in national and foreign currency.
The sources of the fund's will be:
- Initial cash in-payment to the Fund from the Guarantee Fund of Tashkent city Small Industrial Zones and the for SMEs Development Guarantee Fund in the amount of $ 50 million and 100 billion soums, respectively, with the abolition of these funds;
- money from the state budget within the approved annual limits for these purposes, and in 2017 for the formation of the resource base of the Fund - 100 billion soums;
- part of the Central Bank’s annual net profit to be sent to the state budget;
- loans and grants of international financial institutions, foreign government bodies and other donors engaged for fulfilling of tasks assigned to the Fund and others.
The Fund will provide guarantees and compensations for loans, as well as resources for banks to finance projects:
- In agriculture, aimed at creating energy-efficient greenhouses, promotion of breeding livestock, poultry, fisheries, rabbits, beekeeping, viticulture and gardening, including intensive gardens;
- in processing agricultural products, creating an infrastructure for storage of fruits and vegetables and logistics centers associated with its transportation;
- for improvement and repair of public places in multi-apartment houses, to be carried out by private owners' associations and management companies and etc
