06/07/2021 - 09:27 4668

On July 5, an online meeting was held between First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Ilkhom Norkulov with representatives of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the international consulting company PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC). 

For reference: IFC was founded in 1956 and is part of the World Bank Group to ensure a steady flow of private investment in developing countries.

The meeting was also attended by First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Saidkahhor Kholkhujaev, Deputy Finance Minister Odilbek Isakov, senior manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers Oybek Yuldashev, specialists from the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Agency for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development and others. The IFC side was represented by the heads of consulting programs Ulugbek Tillyaev and Zarina Odinaeva, senior investment specialist, project manager Maria Turetskaya, senior expert in digital finance Alexey Bratanovsky, head of the corporation's representative office in our country Zafar Khashimov and others.

IFC representatives made a presentation on the project “Development of financial services for individual entrepreneurs, micro and small businesses in Uzbekistan”. They talked about the institutional, infrastructural, regulatory and other constraints holding back this direction.

The main goal of the project is to build a comprehensive, sustainable and competitive microfinance system that will meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, segments that do not receive financial services. This system should create a level playing field for all players and convenient access to resources through digitalization.

The tasks, approaches and expected results of the project were discussed. It was noted that this year the corporation launched the first stage of the program for the development of the commercial microfinance market in our republic. IFC experts studied the current and future demand for such products and selected financial institutions on the basis of which they will be piloted.

The corporation specialists have been provided with the necessary input data. The participants also identified representatives of ministries and departments to interact with the IFC team within the framework of the project.

Both sides noted their readiness to continue mutually beneficial and long-term partnership in order to effectively implement reforms in all areas.

Information service of the

Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction