Uzbek President Islam Karimov has determined the priority spheres of the state program, which will be developed and adopted due to the Year of Small and Private Business.
He believes that protection of small and private business should be the main point of legislature. The president noted that a lot of work was done to avoid intervention of state and control structures in the financial and economic work of business, to provide more economic rights and freedom. But poor qualification of the functionaries is still a topical issue and has a negative effect. Red tape, bribery, excess of power are still common.
Another priority is more improvement of conditions for small and private business. The procedure for registering small business, accounts in tax, financial and statistical structures were simplified.
In 2011 the tax rate for small and private business will drop from 7% to 6% as a new benefit.
The president believes that measures should be taken to improve the system of medium-term and long-term credits to allow small and private business to modernize production and help them gain access to regional and world markets.
Islam Karimov noted that small and private business is mainly working in spheres of trade, services and communication, processing of agricultural products. He says that business should work in pharmacology, information and hi-tech spheres.
Over 74% of Uzbek population is involved in small and private business. In 2010, 480,000 new work places were opened, over 60% of them in agricultural sphere. The small business share of GDP is expected to reach 53% in 2010.
Uzbekistan dedicates each year to a certain sphere, determining the priority of development since 1997. The year 2010 was the Year of Harmonic Development of the Generation. The state program had 1.8 trillion sums for its realization issued from the state budget, 3.3 trillion sums from the banks, 2.7 trillion from economic subjects.
