Opportunities in ensuring employment of the population indicated

    Uzbekistan 25 January 2023 3926

    On January 25, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on the issues of reducing poverty, ensuring employment of the population and supporting small businesses.

    The main goal of the socio-economic policy of Uzbekistan is to increase jobs and reduce poverty. As a result of targeted work in this direction, the poverty rate fell from 17 to 14 percent last year. 1 million people have been lifted out of poverty through vocational training and the promotion of entrepreneurship.

    Over the past year, about 200,000 business entities were created, the activities of 10,000 were expanded, and the production capacity of 11,000 enterprises was restored.

    However, in some regions, the situation is changing slowly. For example, in Navoi, Surkhandarya and Fergana regions, there has been no significant improvement in poverty reduction indicators. The developed employment programs in several districts and cities do not correspond to the available opportunities.

    In this regard, plans to provide employment and support small businesses this year were considered at the meeting.

    “The main factor in reducing poverty is providing the population with profitable work. Therefore, 5 agencies responsible for poverty reduction were transformed into a single system as part of the administrative reform. The new ministry has been provided with all organizational and financial possibilities. From now on, both keeping records of labor resources and unemployment, as well as supporting employment and developing entrepreneurship in mahallas will be carried out within the framework of one ministry”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

    Responsible persons were tasked with more thoroughly developing and approving employment programs for 2023 by districts.

    The Head of state noted the areas that need to be addressed.

    It was noted that, first of all, to further stimulate family entrepreneurship, the scale of financial support will be expanded. In 2022, about 10 trillion UZS of soft loans were allocated for this. This year, 12 trillion UZS will be allocated for the family business program. The maximum amount of such loans will increase.

    Agriculture is another important source of employment. In two years, more than 200,000 hectares of land were distributed among the population. This is more than the total area of cotton and grain fields in Samarkand region.

    However, at places, these works are organized randomly, and the cultivation of products is not carried out by the plantation method. In this regard, the President instructed to allocate plots in places convenient for the population and arrange for the cultivation of products in demand on the market. Efficiently using these lands, it is possible to manufacture products worth 1 billion dollars.

    As is known, the Head of state in his Address to the people announced that the districts and cities will be divided into 5 categories depending on their economic potential.

    At the meeting, it was decided that in the districts of the 4th and 5th categories, work to reduce poverty will be organized in a new way. So, at the first stage, the “iron notebook”, “youth notebook” and “women’s notebook” will be combined into a single system, and a single digital passport will be developed for each family. In the second stage, individual programs for getting out of poverty will be prepared for each family. In the third phase, vocational training and entrepreneurship projects will be implemented.

    For these purposes, the creation of 300 micro centers has begun in mahallas. The President noted the importance of increasing the number of such centers and creating conditions for the unemployed to engage in crafts and entrepreneurship.

    The Ministry of Poverty Reduction and Employment was instructed, together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to develop an entrepreneurship development program for each district.

    At the meeting, hokims of regions and districts reported on the available opportunities and experience gained in the regions.