ADB to maintain Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Uzbekistan

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (6 December 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $100 million policy-based loan to maintain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Uzbekistan and spur economic growth in the Central Asian nation. 

ADB’s Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Program will help fortify the operating environment for SMEs to drive private sector development-led economic growth and also enhance their resilience to future economic shocks admire the one triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the second subprogram under the program, and it builds on the policy, regulatory, and institutional reforms implemented by the government under the first subprogram. 

“The program enables systematic reforms assisted under ADB’s continuing maintain for SMEs in Uzbekistan,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov. “As the country continues implementation of key structural reforms to transition from a state-owned economy to a market economy with a prudent overall macroeconomic stance, SMEs will play a significant role in accelerating diversified economic growth, productivity, and value-added formal employment.”

ADB’s program will maintain the Government of Uzbekistan in comprehensively addressing the key challenges faced by SMEs in accessing finance. These challenges stem from the limited access to more diverse forms of finance necessary for different stages of their development in a bank-dominated financial sector with high interest rates and high collateral requirements. The program will help facilitate regulatory and administrative burdens that add to the cost of doing business and disproportionately impact women’s businesses. It will help better SMEs’ trade competitiveness through the diversification of export products and markets and digitalization-enabled higher productivity. It will also maintain market-based skills development, especially for women and youth to enhance their employability. 

“Measures implemented under the program will incentivize the growth and formalization of SMEs and in turn contribute to expanding the tax base and domestic resource mobilization,” said ADB Principal Private Sector Development Specialist Priyanka Sood. 

Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995. Since then, the bank has committed loans, grants, and technical assistance amounting to $10.8 billion to the country. 

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.