Chamber of Commerce and Industry and UNDP Project “Business Forum of Uzbekistan (Phase III)”, together with the higher educational institutions of the capital have launched a unique pilot program to support the start-up initiatives. It will provide an opportunity for students and young scientists to start their own business and to realize potential in the field of entrepreneurship.
Modern universities of our republic are “forges” of ideas and technologies, which create innovative projects for social development. However, while this process is not involved all the potential students. Thus, in many institutions are insufficiently developed mechanisms to stimulate and support small innovative projects of students and young scientists in the early stages. To address this issue and start a program to support youth initiatives has been launched. The pilot program covers 15 universities in Tashkent.
The project is a free three-month intensive program, organized in educational institutions with the assistance of UNDP and Chamber of Commerce. The participants will be able to master the skills of the implementation start-up ideas, get advice from a business mentor, develop and test minimum working model of product and service, as well as carry out project presentation to potential investors.
Taking into account the uniqueness of working methods of project to support start-ups, it is expected that this model will be widely distributed in all the universities of Uzbekistan, as well as will improve the system and mechanisms of interaction between them and the private sector, to strengthen the integration of production and higher education, to create new jobs.