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EBRD President visits award-winning Uzbek small business
Developing small business sector in Central Asia is a priority
NONASH, a tiny cake and biscuit factory in Tashkent, was the unanimous pick as winner of the country's first small and medium business project competition, beating out 17 other finalists.
EBRD President Jean Lemierre visited the pastry producer today. Mr Lemierre is in Tashkent for the Bank's Annual Meeting, which opens this weekend. The small business is one of thousands throughout Central Asia to benefit from the combined support of the EBRD and donor countries including Switzerland, Germany and the United States. The EBRD has invested about €285 million in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Central Asia.
NONASH's various biscuits and Russian-style spice cakes (pryaniki in Russian) are sold in more than 550 outlets across Tashkent. NONASH will soon receive a 4½-year, $125,000 loan from the National Bank of Uzbekistan via the EBRD SME Credit Line. For winning the contest, NONASH gets €20,000 worth of office equipment, a reduction of the front-end loan fee, and free insurance policies from Uzbekinvest National Export-Import Insurance Company. Shukurulla Faizullaev, a 44-year-old Uzbek national who started NONASH in 2001, plans to use the loan to buy new German equipment to produce a variety of filo pastries (croissants, strudels, etc) that are scarcely available in the Uzbek market.
Mr Lemierre said small businesses like NONASH are the economy's lifeblood. But he said it is still difficult for many entrepreneurs to find the support they need to make their businesses work. The EBRD plans to work closely with Uzbek authorities and their counterparts across the region to help change that and develop the region's enterprise sector.
NONASH was selected for the award by a five-person jury including representatives from Uzbekistan's State Property Committee, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the EBRD and its Business Advisory Service programme. Jury members were impressed by NONASH's fast-growing production and sales of various kinds of cookies and spice cakes, which under the brand name 'Slavyanskie' are gaining in popularity. Energetic management is planning to expand the business into a pastry cooking production and create dozens of new jobs, especially for women in Tashkent.
The second best proposal came from Pekin-Chirchik, a Chirchik based chemicals and polypropylene sacks producer, which employs a plastic waste utilisation technology. UzPromstroyBank supported this proposal. Third place was awarded to UzbekXerox, a copying service provider from Tashkent. The Pakhta bank was behind the proposal. Runners-up also receive office equipment from the Swiss sponsor, insurance from "UzbekInvest" and front-end fee reductions from their financing banks.
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