The event was organized by parliamentary fraction of Liberal-Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (UzLiDeP), Committee of Legislative Chamber on industry, construction and trade and International Financial Corporation. MPs of Legislative Chamber, national and foreign experts, as well as mass media participated at the work of the roundtable.

The event was aimed at presentation of strategy and political-legal experience of Uzbekistan in developing entrepreneurship and support of small businesses, attracting attention of public to draft law “On permission procedures in entrepreneurship activity”, etc.

Participants underlined that Uzbekistan pays attention to creation of favourable conditions for entrepreneurship activity, eliminating administrative barriers in this sphere. Several laws, presidential and governmental resolutions were adopted. Overall over 400 laws were adopted, which were directed at reforming economy, liberalizing and modernizing economy.

Total share of non-state businesses in total number of registered business entities makes up 92.2% and they provide jobs to over 79% of able-bodied population. Share of small and private businesses in GDP of Uzbekistan makes up 53% and in near future it will reach 60%. In the first half of 2011, some 22,800 small businesses were created in Uzbekistan and they created 331,200 jobs. The volume of industrial production of small businesses grew by 20.4% and exports and own goods sales through exchange trades by 1.5 times.

Presidential decree “On additional measures on forming maximum favourable business environment for further developing small and private entrepreneurship” from 24 August 2011 and the governmental resolution “On measures on eliminating bureaucratic barriers and further increasing freedom of entrepreneurship activity” from 25 August 2011 became logical work of this work. These documents are directed at improving business environment, liberalizing and speeding up market reforms, as well as providing more freedom to business entities.

Foreign and local experts noted that the presidential resolution abolish over 50 permission procedures in various spheres of entrepreneurship activity, which are directed at improving business climate for small business. In particular, according to specialists, decreasing requirements on registering import and export contracts, registering subject of import operation, simplifying access of small businesses to external markets, will give economic effect for over US$5 million a year.

Saved resources will allow to produce quality goods, launch full production capacities, boost implementation of Localization Programme, etc.

During the discussions of the draft law “On permission procedures in entrepreneurship activity”, it was noted that it is necessary to strongly limit list and types of procedural activities, required for conducting business activities, set legislative ban for introducing new permission types, which are not envisaged by legislation.

The draft law was adopted in the first reading by the Legislative Chamber and currently it is prepared for the second reading. UzLiDeP is attracting small and private businesses to discussion of the draft law, which will allow to increase quality of the law.

After discussing the draft law “On permission procedures in entrepreneurship activity”, the participants of the roundtable discussed the document is directed at further liberalizing economy of Uzbekistan and eliminating red table, which will create foundation for dynamic development of small businesses. Foreign experts underlined that use of experience of countries with developed economies on administration of business activities, introduction of one-stop-shop mechanism and notification order for receiving permissions and others allowed significantly to decrease expenses and time for permission procedures.

During the discussions, the participants expressed concrete proposals on improving draft law, including concretization of some regulations, related to terms of issuing permissions and eliminating red tape. The participants developed recommendations on improving mechanism on issuing permission documents and transparency of permission procedures.