The workshop was organized by the joint project of the Cabinet of Ministers, Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan (CBU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) “Support to development of microfinance sector” in cooperation with The National Association of Microfinance Organizations and Credit Unions (NAMOCU), and with support of The Banking and Finance Academy of Uzbekistan.

During workshop, the Second edition of “Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report for 2010” was presented.

The Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report is prepared with an aim of improving institutional transparency and efficiency of microfinance organizations and microfinance sector of Uzbekistan. It provides both a snapshot description of the microfinance market condition, as well as the dynamics of its development.

The report was prepared by the NAMOCU with support from the “Support to development of microfinance sector” project and Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), which is the only organization that specializes in conducting comparative analysis of MFIs and the efficiency of their work. In addition, the MIX Market aims to create an effective system of information exchange between participants of microfinance market throughout the world. By the end of 2010, the number of MFIs providing their financial reports to the MIX Market reached 23 organizations, including “Mikrokreditbank” and “Hamkorbank”. This year the project provided technical assistance for 22 MFIs to enter the financial data on the MIX Market platform.

Reporting on the electronic platform of MIX Market provides an opportunity to position the microcredit organizations operating in the international market, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their work, to increase efficiency by comparing its activity with other members of the microfinance industry, as well as significantly increase their investment attraction of donors and investors.

It has to be noted that after reporting at MIX Market the “Microcreditbank” has become one of the top five microfinance banks in Europe and the CIS. Also, the work of “Microcreditbank” was marked by "five diamonds" that demonstrates the high level of transparency.

During the workshop participants were introduced with international trends of microfinance development worldwide, new initiatives in the area of social performance management in microfinancing, as well aswith the main content of the report, in particular, information on coverage of microfinance, with the latest changes in the regulatory framework, challenges facing the sector in coming years