Project News

From 21st to 25th of November, at the Uzbekistan- Japan Center for Human Development (UJC) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the Business Incubation Project (BIP) conducted a 5-days Third Country Training Program (TCTP) for entrepreneurs who have been receiving BIP's incubation services.

The participants were the owners of textile, recruiting, educational center and fish breeding companies. Two staff of the State Institution Business Incubator (SIBI) also participated in the program.

UJC was started as a JICA's technical cooperation project in 2000 with one of its mandates being to provide mini-MBA type of business courses called the "Professional Management Program" (PMP). Since its start in 2001, more than 2,300 people completed PMP and its alumni has become a great source of networking. UJC tailored a TCTP for BIP consisting of lectures by UJC trainers and company visits to PMP alumni. Through the company visits, participants learned PMP alumni's business experiences and Uzbekistan's recent business environment. These companies selected by UJC were in the same industries as TCTP participants', which gave the participants a great opportunity for networking. Some of the participants already found potential partners and have started negotiations.

On the final day of the program, the participants were invited to attend a regular meeting of "Young Business Club" which was chaired by UJC lecturers, where participants could meet entrepreneurs actively working in different fields.

The bilateral relationship between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has drastically improved since the current president of Uzbekistan, Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoev, came to power in 2016. Until then, most of the borders had been closed, hindering residents' free transportation between the two countries. Although opened borders brought a big chance for cross-border businesses, Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), which are BIP's main target, have few opportunities for networking. Therefore, participating in the TCTP provided them with a great opportunity to connect with potential partners and suppliers in Uzbekistan. One of the participants Mr. Umed Rakhimov is a student entrepreneur, who runs a portal site for staffing and recruiting, had attended only a few business training courses in the past and felt lacking business knowledge. He said, "I learned, for the first time, how to approach target audience, how to organize a business from clients' perspective, how to establish digital marketing strategy and many other matters in this training. It was also an excellent opportunity for me to obtain some advice from a business owner who has experience in running her business for many years in my field. This training program was extremely useful for me in developing my business ideas further".

This TCTP became meaningful not only to improve the level of business knowledge of participants, but also to show how the regional cooperation in Central Asia can be strengthened by utilizing the asset of JICA's technical cooperation in neighboring countries.

Training at UJC

Visiting alumni companies

At networking event

The certification ceremony