Every fourth entrepreneur in the country is a woman, but they are mainly engaged in micro-businesses.
In Tajikistan, there are a number of factors that hinder the active involvement of women in entrepreneurship, including a lack of start-up capital, low levels of legal, financial and digital literacy, and negative gender stereotypes.
This is stated in the State Program for the Development of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Tajikistan for the period until 2027. The document, adopted by government decree on November 29 this year, is posted on the legal information portal of the country’s Ministry of Justice (Adliya).
An insufficient amount of financial, labor, time and other intangible resources leads to the fact that women’s entrepreneurship is not being promoted as it should be, the document says.
“There is a vicious circle, small enterprises that do not have the opportunity to receive large-scale financing, and their own funds do not allow them to expand their staff and increase production volumes,” note the authors of the Program.
They point out that women-led businesses employ fewer workers and employ more women.
“The annual turnover and profit of these enterprises is less than that of male-led enterprises,” the document says.
It notes that increasing opportunities for women to enter non-traditional and more lucrative sectors of the economy will have the added effect of increasing women’s employment.
Growth through microbusiness
Meanwhile, according to the data provided in the Program, as of January 1, 2022, over 79 thousand women entrepreneurs were registered in the country, which is 23.1% of the total number of registered business entities in the country.
Compared to 2017, the number of women entrepreneurs increased by more than 20 thousand people or by 34.1%.
However, the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing, mainly in individual entrepreneurship (patent and certificate).
According to statistics, in 2017 the number of registered women entrepreneurs working on the basis of a patent or certificate was just over 12 thousand people or 10.9% of the total number of individual entrepreneurs. And as of January 1, 2022, their number was already 36.8 thousand people and reached 26.1% of the total number of such entrepreneurs.
The program contains many recommendations for the development of women’s businesses, in particular, proposals for creating a favorable business environment, a permanent support system, sustainable infrastructure, etc.
Source : Asia-Plus
