A presentation on Japan’s financing of the BAS Programme in Uzbekistan was held on 3 May at the Intercontinental Tashkent Hotel.

Japanese Envoy to Uzbekistan Mr. Yuichi Kusumoto, Head of the EBRD Uzbekistan Office Fernand Pillonel, as well as the coordinators of the BAS Programme in Central Asia and Uzbekistan participated in the event. They told about the results of the programme, and shared some of the plans for the future.

The Business Advisory Services Programme (BAS) is intended to assist local entrepreneurs receive practical consultations on various business issues. The programme initiated as a part of the EBRD’s activity in the region, has been running for over 12 years, and currently covers 18 countries of Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic.

In Central Asia BAS was launched in October 2001. In April of this year, the financing of the programme in Uzbekistan (which for the two previous years had been done by the government of Switzerland), again revived with the support of the Japanese Government, UzReport.com reported.

The main directions in the activity of the BAS Uzbekistan is supporting local small and medium enterprises, as well as assisting the development of the consulting services market.

BAS Programme, which aims to stimulate the development of SMEs thorugh provision of practical consultations on the issues of business, has achieved visible results over the five years of its presence in Uzbekistan. Practice has showed that the consulting projects proposed by the BAS officers are finding demand among local enterprises of the private sector. The Programme had initiated 525 projects, 410 of which have already been completed.

The projects typically supported by the BAS Uzbekistan are marketing studies and brand-development programmes, business-plans to attract financing, integration of quality management systems, integration of information management systems (1C, etc), reorganization and restructuring of enterprises, improvement of financial accounting and control system, etc.

Japanese Government’s support of the BAS Programme in Uzbekistan pursues several objectives, including assisting the development of regional enterprises through activation of the functioning of offices in Samarkand, Andijan and Bukhara, supporting new directions and service forms in consulting industry, organization of specialized trainings for local consulting companies with the aim of developing their professional skills of working with clients and establishing strong consulting organizations, as well as promotion through press and electronic media the use of consulting services by small and medium-sized enterprises.