The ongoing pandemic has implications on all spheres of life of people and organizations, indicating the need to accelerate change, develop new technologies and introduce innovations. During a pandemic, unprecedented changes happen in people's lives, in their habits and preferences. This in turn rendering an impact to related industries. Our proposal for mitigating the effects of the pandemic is Startup Initiatives.

Startups play a vital role in developing technology and driving innovation. At the present stage of economic development innovative entrepreneurship (startups) is rightfully considered the most significant driving force of socio-economic development.

In the year of the development of digital economy the “Startup Initiatives” support programme taking into account the pandemic will be held completely online for the first time. This format is a great practice for all participating teams and a practical step towards digitalization.

One area that will be seriously impacted by the pandemic will be employment, as the economic restructuring is underway and as the economy revives, some jobs may simply disappear. Therefore, this year the Startup Initiatives program will become a platform for the exchange of knowledge and developing specialists and technological projects for the new economic realities, ie. business transformation by forcing collaboration between science, education and manufacturing.

Changing conditions and consumer preferences during the pandemic are leaving a serious imprint on the business processes and infrastructure of enterprises and organizations, forcing them to further reduce costs and look for new ways of working to stay afloat. By generating feedback in the form of requests for new technologies and innovations, the program plans to help businesses and organizations reduce costs, digitize key business processes, and find talent to solve problems.

This year, the work of the program will be organized in all regions of the republic, including Tashkent city and Republic of Karakalpakstan, and will be carried out in cooperation with the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education, the Ministry of Innovative Development, the Agency on Youth Issues of Uzbekistan, the “Yoshlar-kelajagimiz” Foundation, the Center for Support of Youth Entrepreneurship of Uzbekistan, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan, the Technological Park of Software and Information Technologies (IT Park) and their territorial divisions in the regions.

Based on the results of the final presentations of projects the 40 best projects across the country will receive targeted grants of up to 50 million soums for the implementation of their startups (up to 3 projects from each region and up to 10 projects in Tashkent). Grants are allocated by the “Yoshlar-kelajagimiz” Foundation and the United Nations Development Program in Uzbekistan thanks to funds allocated by the Government of Japan.

Additional information on the support program, project selection criteria and requirements for participants is available on www.startupinitiatives.uz. Applications are accepted until September 16, 2020.

“Startup initiatives” support programme has been in running for 5 years and this year being implemented under the "Promotion of youth employment in Uzbekistan" UNDP and MELR joint project funded by the Government of Russian Federation.

For additional information: 90 317-39-59, Usmon Rakhimjanov, Task manager on promoting youth entrepreneurship, "Promoting youth employment in Uzbekistan" project.

For media: 93 3977599, Behzod Umarov, PR specialist, "Promotion of Youth Employment in Uzbekistan" project.

For detailed information about the support programme visit website http://startupinitiatives.uz/

For updates follow the programme page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/startupuzb/  and Telegram channel https://t.me/startup_initiatives