Tashkent hosted a meeting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the issue of gender equality in Uzbekistan.

As noted by Deputy Business Ombudsman Jamshid Urunov, the meeting aims to promote gender equality in Uzbekistan and unite government bodies, civil society institutions, academia, the private sector, and other parties interested in empowering women to identify the main priority areas of action.

Over the past 5 years, Uzbekistan has adopted more than 10 regulatory documents supporting women’s entrepreneurship. As a result of the reforms, as of January 1, 2023, the number of small enterprises and micro-firms run by women exceeded 39 thousand.

During 9 months this year, the Office of the Business Ombudsman received 891 appeals from women, which is 13 percent of all accepted appeals. 18.4 percent of appeals relate to issues of financing and lending, 16.3 percent – to land issues, cadastre, and architecture, 15.2 percent to taxes, 8 – to court decisions and their execution, 4 percent – to infrastructure, and the rest to other issues.

At the event, the participants discussed the opportunities provided by the state to women entrepreneurs and plans for the future.

Gulnoza Boboyeva, UzA