Bishkek, 17 November 2022, Bishkek – The Ministry of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic and Public Union “Kurak” in cooperation with development partners celebrated the World Women’s Entrepreneurship Day under the theme “Solidarity, Focus, Result!”

World Women's Entrepreneurship Day is a global initiative supported by the UN since 2014. It is aimed at supporting and empowering women entrepreneurs around the world and covers more than 140 countries, including Kyrgyzstan.

In his opening speech, Iskender Asykulov, the Deputy Minister of Economy and Commerce noted that at present, women's entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan includes a wide variety of economic activities, ranging from trade, services, the textile industry to IT and nanotechnologies.

The development of women's entrepreneurship is one of the most effective ways to overcome poverty and promote sustainable socio-economic development of communities. Women's entrepreneurship always and everywhere contributes to improving the quality of livelihoods and the expansion of women's economic opportunities leads to an improvement in the economic environment and market development.

Ainoura Sagynbaeva, Ambassador of the World Women’s Entrepreneurship Day in her opening speech said that today we have everything necessary for the real implementation of the planned: “Solidarity of women entrepreneurs and a great desire to develop, we have a platform - the State Program, which unites all partners who share our goal. Now the main thing is to focus on specific steps, on the resources that we have, and to move pointwise every day together, every day and only together to bring economic results. But most importantly, we will increase the human potential of our country”.

Annual events dedicated to this significant date are part of the promotion of the Government Program to support women's entrepreneurship and its implementation in the Kyrgyz Republic for 2022-2026. According to the latest Human Development Report, since last year the share of women in the labor market in Kyrgyzstan has decreased from 44.8% to 42.1% and is still very low compared to 71.7% for men.

“Women are important agents of change and harnessing the power of women entrepreneurs will be critical to a sustainable and inclusive economic and social recovery from the COVID19 crisis. UNDP pays special attention to the expansion of socio-economic opportunities for women in Kyrgyzstan. Our programs focus on investing in women and girls, and we are always ready to support initiatives that remove barriers to economic recovery and women's empowerment, and entrepreneurship in its various forms is a powerful catalyst to make this a reality through job creation,” - says Monica Rijal, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in the Kyrgyz Republic.

While the COVID-19 crisis has been a clear threat to entrepreneurs, particularly to women entrepreneurs, it has fueled the development of new opportunities such as recognition of remote work models, accelerating digitalization and increasing the visibility of alternative forms of leadership.

“The success of women business leaders not only contributes to the economic health of a country’s economy, but also inspires other women to realize big ideas, big projects and big dreams. I hope that today's event will contribute to our joint efforts to expand the economic opportunities of women entrepreneurs, to empower women in the development of the economy of the country and the country as a whole”, said Joshua Templeton, Director of Economic Development Office, USAID/Kyrgyz Republic.

This year, the initiative to hold the World Women's Entrepreneurship Day was held with the participation of a wide range of entrepreneurs from all regions of Kyrgyzstan. The organization of the event was made possible with the financial and technical support of the UNDP Office in the Kyrgyz Republic, the EBRD, the World Bank, the USAID Trade Program in Central Asia, the Coalition for the Development of Women's Entrepreneurship and the Reduction of Gender Violence "Demilgeluu Aiymdar", WAGE, USAID AgroTrade, Helvetas in the Kyrgyz Republic.

For media queries, please contact Ainagul Abdrakhmanova at +996770183493 or ainagul.abdrakhmanova@undp.org.