On May 12, 2023, a scientific and practical conference on the topic «Development of productive entrepreneurship in Tajikistan: problems and ways of their solutions» was held at the Center for strategic research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan. The purpose of the conference was to analyze and evaluate the current situation and prospects for the development of industrial entrepreneurship in the country.
The conference was attended by representatives of relevant government ministries and institutions, scientists of scientific and educational institutions, specialists and experts, businessmen and representatives of the private sector, and mass media journalists.
The main scientific directions of the conference included:
— analysis of the business environment in the country and finding ways to further improve it;
— assessment of the issues of development of industrial entrepreneurship by sectors; the taxation system of the Republic of Tajikistan and their influence on the development of industrial entrepreneurship;
— tax and customs privileges and reliefs in the Republic of Tajikistan and their assessment;
— assessment of the level of attitude of entrepreneurs to existing privileges and reliefs;
— preferential loans and their access to production entrepreneurs; situation and issues of export of products produced by entrepreneurs;
-administrative and artificial obstacles and other restrictions in ensuring the development of production entrepreneurship of the Republic of Tajikistan;
— other issues related to the sphere.
The scientific and practical conference was opened with an introductory speech of the director of the Center for strategic research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, doctor of philosophy, professor, associate member of National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan Khayriddin Usmonzoda, who welcomed the participants and noted that considering its important role in solving economic and social issues of the country and enriching the state budget, industrial entrepreneurship has been identified as one of the priority areas of the country’s economic policy. In this regard, the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan pays particular attention to the development of the private sector, industrial entrepreneurship and improvement of the investment climate in the country, and is the initiator of solving issues related to business support, especially industrial entrepreneurship.
It should be noted that by 2030, a number of target indicators have been determined based on the development of the private sector and entrepreneurship, especially manufacturing entrepreneurship, based on which there will be a more than 3-fold increase in the gross domestic product, the expansion of the diversification of the national economy, more than two equally reducing the level of poverty and increasing the share of the middle class of the population to 50 percent.
Today, in order to achieve these priorities, a number of privileges and reliefs are provided. In general, almost 110 lists of benefits are provided for business activity, especially manufacturing entrepreneurship, and it is necessary for business entities to effectively use the privileges and reliefs provided by the legislation.
According to the Statistics Agency, 340,000 economic entities are operating in the country through the «Single Window» as of January 1, 2023, which is 1,300 more than in the same period of 2022. Now, the development of industrial entrepreneurship plays a significant role in ensuring the national economy. However, there is no single specific program in this direction, other than the «Program of State Support and Development of the Private Sector in the Republic of Tajikistan for 2022-2026″. Therefore, ministries and sectoral offices should contribute to the development and adoption of the «Special Program or Strategy for the Development of Industrial Entrepreneurship until 2030».
Measures of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan to support business are currently increasing, reducing inspections; support of business entities to obtain authorization documents are among such recent measures taken in this direction. In order to implement the instructions of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan during the next Address to the Majlisi Oli, the draft Law «On the Permitting System of the Republic of Tajikistan»was prepared and approved by the Government to unify the relations of licensing and authorization within the framework of a single document and to reduce the list of relevant documents by 60 percent, has been recognized. This measure regulates the unified authorization and licensing procedures and simplifies the access of business entities to obtain authorization documents. Also, as a result of the implementation of reforms in the field of inspection of economic entities, the number of inspection bodies will be increased from 27 to 23. Also, it is planned to create a single database on the conducted tests and an information system for managing this process. The purpose of creating this database is to automate the process of coordination of inspections between inspection bodies; planning, prevention of repetition and violation of the period of conducting the inspection of the activity of the business entity and creating a favorable environment for attracting capital.
Now, for business entities, access to credit resources, especially preferential loans, is usually the only way to develop their activity. Despite the constant increase in the volume of lending, the interest rate of its repayment is still high and remains a critical issue. The level of profitability does not allow the entrepreneur to pay such a rate and get a stable income. In addition, such a situation does not allow the production enterprises to adequately stock the necessary raw materials and in this context to fully use their production capacities.
The Advisory Council under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan on improving the investment space has developed the Law «On Electronic Trade», the project of the programs «Development of Women’s Entrepreneurship for the period up to 2030» and «Development of Electronic Business», which will contribute to the further development of industrial entrepreneurship.
However, although there are positive trends in the organization of industrial business activities in the Republic of Tajikistan, the quality of its development, taking into account the rapidly changing state of the world economy and international competition, still does not meet the requirements of modern times. Therefore, the current situation forces us to continuously study, analyze and evaluate this important sector of the economy.
Then, in front of the present, the head of the Research Department of Entrepreneurship Issues and Development of the Private Sector of the Center for strategic research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Amin Odinaev spoke on the topic «Issues of the development of industrial entrepreneurship in the country: achievements and problems», the head of the bank analysis department of the Department of Banking Supervision of the National Bank of Tajikistan Suhaili Abduvahhobov on the topic «Supporting the development of entrepreneurship in the banking system», the head of the Tax Legislation Regulation Department of the Tax Committee under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Nozirjon Nazirzoda on the topic «Tax Codex in the new edition as a mechanism for supporting business entities», the head of the Department for the Organization of Customs Control of the Customs Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, Captain Zafari S. on the topic «The role of simplifying the customs clearance process and the privileges offered in the development of the country’s entrepreneurship», the head of the Enterprise Development Office, the state unit of the Industrial and Export Bank of Tajikistan «Sanoatsodirotbank» Bakhtiyor Abdullozoda on the topic «Our goal — the development of entrepreneurship», the leading researcher of the Institute of Economics and demography of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan Bahodur Mahkamov on the topic «Industry of Tajikistan: modern situation and development prospects» and gave satisfactory answers to the questions of the audience. After that, the participants of the conference expressed useful thoughts and opinions.
The director of Center for strategic research under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Khayriddin Usmonzoda concluded and summarized the scientific and practical conference and thanked the participants of the meeting for their active participation, expressed hope that this scientific and practical conference will contribute to the further improvement of the industrial business environment in the Republic of Tajikistan.
The meeting was held in the spirit of sincerity, mutual understanding and constructive dialogue.
Press service of the
Center for strategic research under the
President of the Republic of Tajikistan
