Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Nov. 5 / Trend D. Azizov /
The share of small business in Uzbekistan's GDP in the first nine months of 2012 was 51 per cent compared to 50.5 per cent the previous one, the State Statistics Committee and the Ministry of Economy reported today.
According to the report, the share of small business in the industry reached 21.4 per cent (20.7 per cent in the same period last year), investments 35.2 per cent (30.2 per cent), construction 71.8 per cent (70.4 per cent), exports 15.5 per cent (15.3 per cent) and employment 75.5 per cent (74.9 per cent).
Around 18,400 new small enterprises (excluding farms) were created in Uzbekistan in January-September this year. According to the report, most of the small enterprises fell to the trade and catering sectors (27.8 per cent of the total volume) and industry (23.6 per cent).
Around 55 state assets totalling $ 19.4 billion soums were delivered to small enterprises in the reporting period to assist in organising small and private enterprises, a report said. 'Around 17,600 unused state facilities were leased'.
Commercial banks allocated loans worth 4.2 trillion soums (an increase of 1.3 times compared to the same period of 2011), including micro-loans worth 857.2 billion soums (increasing 1.4 times) to small business and private enterprises.
The volume of state purchases from small enterprises totalled 229.1 billion soums (92.9 per cent of total public procurement carried out by means of electronic trading). More than 7000 small enterprises participated in the public procurement system with their goods and services.
Small and private enterprises exported goods worth $1.7 billion over nine months.
According to the Uzbek legislation, micro-firms include no more than 20 to 100 people in small enterprises.
The official exchange rate is 1.956.21/ $ 1 on Nov. 5.