DUSHANBE, November 24, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Five young start-uppers won the nomination “Best Small and Medium Start-Up Business Project 2014.”

This nomination is a joint initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce of Tajikistan (AmCham) and GIZ Program “Framework and Finance for Private Sector Development in Tajikistan” (FFPSD) within the frameworks of the Global Entrepreneurship Week.  The awarding ceremony took place on November 21 at Sheraton Dushanbe with participation of Ilhom Mahkambayev, Executive Director AmCham and Jens Elsner, Acting Country Director GIZ.

The GIZ Office in Dushanbe notes that the contest and subsequent awarding crowned a hard work carried out within the project on training of teaching staff of specialized universities and young teachers on basics of business planning.  The selected teachers underwent ToT on the Program CEFE - Competency based Economy by Formation of Entrepreneurs.  The Program is oriented towards countries in transition to market economy. Out of twenty trained teachers, five joined the project on delivery of trainings for start-up entrepreneurs. 

Fourteen applicants out of fifty made it to enroll to the courses based on the selection criteria. Afterwards, ten out of those fourteen trainees showed interest in participating in the contest.  Each contestant developed a project of business plan and presented it to the expert committee that comprised representatives of AmCham, FFPSD Program and independent auditor.  The projects were assessed as per the following criteria: feasibility, innovativeness, job creation, technical and financial viability.  As a result the committee selected five winners and kept secret as to who they were until the end, thereby stirring the audience’s interest. 

Hartwig Ungethum, Team Leader of FFPSD Component 1, highlighted the importance of effective business management in any entrepreneurial business.  While addressing the young audience he stressed the necessity to adequately prioritize business planning, as young entrepreneurs erroneously tend to put the money issue in the first place.

The Framework and Finance for Private Sector Development Program (FFPSD) in Tajikistan was commissioned by the British and German governments.  The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) is implementing the program in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) of Tajikistan and other national and international partners.  The Program contributes to improving the framework for sustainable and pro-poor growth in the Tajik economy, especially in rural areas.  To achieve this objective, the Program focuses on four fields of intervention: 1) Promotion of agricultural and off-farm production by building up services for agricultural production, processing and marketing; 2) Improved access to financial services; 3) Promotion of the potential for cross-border trade; and 4) Support for evidence-based and dialogue-based economic policy planning.