Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- As part of the next Women’s Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was held on 18-19 August this year in Tashkent, the first conference of women entrepreneurs was also held.

The event was attended by heads of states and non-state women’s organizations of the SCO member countries, representatives of the SCO diplomatic corps in Tashkent, representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, women entrepreneurs, and international experts in this field.

Chairwoman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbayeva, who took part in the conference with a welcoming speech, dwelled on the main goals and objectives of this conference, the expected results.

It was noted that business entities play an important role in ensuring economic well-being. An entrepreneur is a guarantee and support for the stability and development of both the state and civil society.

Therefore, Uzbekistan put forward the initiative to hold the first conference of women entrepreneurs and unite representatives of the business circles of the SCO member states, said Senate Chairwoman T. Narbayeva.

It was noted that this conference is a kind of platform for discussing issues of enhancing trade, economic and business ties between women entrepreneurs of the SCO member states, empowering women in entrepreneurial activities, mutual exchange of experience in analyzing promising business areas, as well as organizing and developing entrepreneurship.

It was emphasized that today women make up almost half of the population of Uzbekistan. They work for the benefit of society in various fields. It is noteworthy that 45% of the population employed in the republic are women. The share of women entrepreneurs in our country is 39%.

During the conference, attention was focused on the ongoing work in Uzbekistan to increase the activity of women in the public administration system, the development of women’s entrepreneurship, and the results achieved in recent years.

Entrepreneurship centers have been established in all regions of our country in order to support the development of entrepreneurship. In 2021 alone, more than 53.8 thousand women were trained in professions.

Over 100.3 billion soums have been allocated for the development of entrepreneurship by the State Trust Fund for Supporting Women and the Family. Thanks to these measures, 34.5 thousand women in our country are provided with jobs.

The conference was attended by leading women of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with reports on projects implemented in the field of women’s entrepreneurship in their countries.