An international seminar on "Women entrepreneurs and ICT" organized by the MASHAV Centre for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel opened in the Israeli city of Haifa on 22 October.

Four female delegates from Uzbekistan are participating in the meeting. The seminar is being held at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Centre.

It should be noted that the people Israel have been sharing their experience in the fields of medicine and agriculture with their Uzbek counterparts for many years. Different Israeli technology is being used in different regions of Uzbekistan for quite a long time. Since 1958, the Centre for International Cooperation, MASHAV, has been a structural subdivision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel.

MASHAV was started as a small centre, but over the years it grew and until now it has provided courses to more than 220,000 students both in Israel and abroad. Its courses are conducted in five languages – English, Hispanic, French, Russian and Arabic. They cover such sectors, as agriculture and related sciences, education, economic and social development, medicine, public health, etc. During the studies, particular attention is paid to the ways of integration of the new advanced technology allowing the graduates to develop their productions, and share the knowledge with other interested specialists. In general, this process could be viewed as innovative. MASHAV operates in more than 140 countries, where Israel has embassies.

Thus, the joint programme on raising the role of nurses was launched seven years ago in Ferghana, Andijan, and Namangan regions. Later, it was expanded to cover Tashkent, Navoi, Bukhara, and Khorezm regions. After the completion of the courses in Karakalpakstan, measures were taken to further expand the project to Karshi and Termez. Of 511 medical nurses who participated in the programme, more than 400 were trained in Israel.

Today’s seminar is devoted to the development of small and medium-sized business and the use of ICT in its operation. Female delegates from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, and Ukraine are participating in it.

From the very beginning seminar participants met with the business consultant of the Centre for Support of Small and Medium-Sized Business (MATI) Yakov Gorohovsky, who told them about the centre’s operation and the system of supporting beginner entrepreneurs.

Also, very practical was the lecture delivered by patent agent David Agranov on "entrepreneurship and protection of industrial property". During the lecture, he told the audience about the patent legislation of different countries of the world and Israel in particular, about how important it is to have the document confirming the entrepreneur’s right to produce particular goods or services, or a copyright for a specific new idea, technology, etc. He also told seminar participants about the way to search patents online to find out whether there are similar or the same already patented ideas, technologies, goods, industrial samples, etc on the Internet.

The participants of the seminar then conducted a roundtable discussion, in which they share experience concerning the operation of small and medium-sized business enterprises.

It is wroth mentioning that Uzbek legislation on the support of small and medium-sized business is much more sophisticated than that of certain countries of the CIS, which was confirmed in the course of the discussion between Uzbek delegates and their counterparts.

During the lecture of the General Director of LN Innovative Technologies Ltd Company Klara Oren seminar participants found out that the state supports its beginner businessmen and scientists through technological greenhouses.

It is worth mentioning that there are practically no natural resources in Israel, which is why a major portion of the country’s GDP comes from the export of technology.

The main idea behind a technological greenhouse is the maintenance of the profitability of the new company from the very phase of idea-generation to the moment when private investors decided to contribute their funds to support this idea. In general, at the first stage – a phase between the establishment of the company and the time when it starts earning profits – the risks of losing the investments are very high. Ms. Oren’s company selects prospective ideas, and helps set up the companies with the assistance of her company’s experienced specialists.

In order to help a business entity form the main capital, the state provides an interest-free loan for two years, and the rest of the amount is contributed by the greenhouse. If the company set up for this money closes down, the state does not require the repayment of the loan, and if it proves successful it requires the repayment of the loan without any interest. The practice of the establishment of technological greenhouses in Israel has seen cases when companies set up for the greenhouse’s money were later sold for several millions of dollars to large corporations. In general it is thought that the level of "survival" of the companies is more than acceptable in 10%. The level at LN Innovative Technologies Ltd is 40%, and today the company deals primarily with the projects on ecological safety.

Apart from the said above, the technological greenhouses also help to implement into the business ideas the developments of talented scientists and do not require substantial areas or numerous human resources. Ms. Oren’s company employs six people. The rest of the experts work on free-lance basis. Since the government provides the money, technological greenhouses are under the control of the Ministry of Industry of Israel.

During their first week in Israel, the participants of the seminar also found out about the benefits of the establishment of interactive business clubs – small and medium-sized companies from different spheres of activity unite into a virtual society with the aim of benefiting from mutual contacts to support the business of the members of the club. Also, several sessions were held, including practical sessions, on the application of interactive technology in the world of business. Participants of the seminar were told about the opportunities of searching for information, partners, buyers and suppliers as well as the methods of monitoring the competitors’ activity.

Uzbek women also visited the Tefen Industrial Park, which provides production areas, as well as consulting services to beginner entrepreneurs on preferential terms.

The first week of the course has ended; still ahead are a roundtable meeting, lectures on agricultural tourism and ICT, and marketing in small business, visits to Microsoft Israel Company in Raanan and to Orange Israel Mobile Company in Rosh Ha’ayn.

Seminar participants will learn about the funds providing financial support to small and medium-sized businesses and prepare their own financial projects, which could be implemented on the conditions that exist in the host country.