OREANDA-NEWS. On April 16, 2009 International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group, presented a survey "Business Environment in Uzbekistan as Seen by Small and Medium Enterprises" in Tashkent. The survey evaluates conditions for business activity and recommends measures on further its improvement in Uzbekistan, reported the Official website investuzbekistan.uz.

Vsevolod Payevskiy, IFC Uzbekistan Business Enabling Environment Project's manger, said the report is based on survey, which was carried out in all regions of Uzbekistan in May 2008. Over 500 small business representatives participated at the survey.

Payevskiy said the survey results confirmed that recent decisions of the government on improvement of business climate helped to decrease administrative barriers. It showed that number of inspections of enterprises is decreasing.

Loup Brefor, the World Bank's Country Manager for Uzbekistan, said the report is important for that it reflects views of businesses on processes, related to activity of small and private businesses.

He said that the constructive dialogue, which was established between the Government and private entrepreneurs, helped to solve some important issues on improving business climate in Uzbekistan.

Alisher Shayhov, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, said the measures, undertaken by the government to boost businesses, helped to increase share of the small businesses in GDP of Uzbekistan from 35.1% in the first quarter of 2008 to 36.2% in the same period of 2009.

The report reviews a whole range of procedures affecting the development of entrepreneurship such as inspections, reporting, permits, registration, and tax administration, as well as relations with the financial institutions. The separate section discusses problems of production enterprises.
The survey is aimed at detecting problems, hindering to development of small businesses in Uzbekistan, as seen by small and medium enterprises. IFC develops concrete recommendations based on survey results to solve existing problems.