U-Report jointly with the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan conducted a poll. The goal is to find out the opinions of young people on start-up projects, in which area they would like to develop their start-up projects, and whether start-up projects influence the development of innovations and the economy of the country.

The results of the polls are necessary to encourage mini- innovations in order to develop a start-up movement, the intellectual property market, and to enhance the position of young people by promoting their own ideas to the market.

Over 8800 people across the country participated in the poll.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE POLL ON START-UP PROJECTS:

1. 68% of respondents did not have an accurate understanding of what startup projects are, 22% said that they were not sure, and the rest chose various options that did not meet the criteria for startups.
2. Almost half of the respondents (48%) believed that there were a few successful startup projects in Uzbekistan.
3. 81% of respondents would like to open their own startup.23% of these respondents had not done this because they did not know how to start.
4. Almost half of the respondents (48% on average, regardless of gender characteristics) considered that in Uzbekistan the conditions for startup projects have only been partly created.
5. The main obstacles to the development of startups in Uzbekistan, according to the respondents were: (1) ignorance of what a startup was (24%), (2) a lot of bureaucracy (22%) and (3) lack of knowledge and / or youth skills for conducting and developing startups in the country.
6. The respondents named 3 main areas in which it was necessary to develop startup projects to promote the economic development of the country education (35%), IT / Telecommunications (24%) and healthcare (7%).
7. U-Reporters believed that to increase the number of successful startup projects in the country, financial assistance (24%), an improvement in the education system (19%) and the organization of training courses on startups (18%) were needed.
8. The majority of U-Reporters (68%) believed that it was necessary to introduce the subject “Fundamentals of business / entrepreneurship” into the curriculum of schools / universities.

According to 32% of respondents, a start-up (startup) is an innovative business. 1/5 of the respondents considered a startup to be a small business, and for 12% of the youth who participated in this poll, any new company could be called a startup. 22% of respondents were not sure.

Almost half of the respondents (48%) believed that there were only a few  successful startup projects in Uzbekistan. 1/4 of the respondents believed that there were many such enterprises, while 18% thought that there were practically no such companies in the country..

More than half of U-Reporters (an average of 58% regardless of gender characteristics) had not created or participated in the creation of their own startups, but would like to. 23% of respondents had not done this because they did not know how to start.

12% of respondents said that they had already created their own startups: 6% of them had had a successful experience, but the remaining 6% shared that luck had not smiled at them.

More women than men (26% versus 21%) did not know how to begin a startup and had tried less in this area than men  (9% versus 14%).

Almost half of the respondents (48% on average, regardless of gender characteristics) believed that young people in Uzbekistan only partially had the necessary conditions for opening their startup projects. 1/4 of the respondents believed that all the conditions have already been created.

Women were more optimistic about the existing conditions while men were more skeptical in this matter: 20% of men believed that there were no conditions in Uzbekistan suitable for opening their startups, while only 12% of women held this opinion.

According to respondents, the main obstacles to the development of startups in Uzbekistan are -

- Firstly, a Low awareness of what startups are (24%),

- Secondly, excessive paperwork and bureaucracy (22%),

- The third big obstacle was the lack of youth knowledge and / or skills for conducting and developing startups in the country (11%).

Only 3% of respondents believed that there were no obstacles to the development of startups in the country.

We asked 5% of respondents who chose the “Other” option to write their personal answers, and received the following reasons to explain why the development of startups in the country is hindered:

1. All of the above answers;
2. Strict requirements for parents regarding the choice of a profession;
3. Lack of youth interest in startups;
4. Lack of personnel who c teach young people the knowledge and skills to create and run startups, the lack of startup incubators;
5. Low purchasing power of the local population, lack of market and demand for goods or services of startups;
6. Corruption, interference of representatives of executive bodies, “protection”, red tape, adoption of certain laws, the gap between cities and villages;
7. Failure to comply with local government decrees, discrepancies between laws and their enforcement, lack of justice, underdeveloped democratic institutions;
8. Excessively high interest of investors, lack of venues for meetings with potential investors, lack of information on investors willing to invest in start-ups, lack of a standard base template for preparing the technical business feasibility study for the investment project and cost estimates, ensuring transparency of the investment process;
9. The tax burden;
10. Monopoly and oligopoly power in the business sector, which does not give the opportunity to develop new ideas for startups;
11. Fear that a good startup idea will be stolen from you, fear of plagiarism of ideas, underdeveloped patent system;
12. Not providing land to business entities on the part of khokimiyats;
13. Problems with the basic infrastructure (electricity, Internet, etc.);
14. Poor coverage of this area in the media;
15. Lack of reliable official statistics, the difficulty of finding official data, lack of access to relevant information.

The respondents considered that the three main areas in which it is primarily necessary to develop startup projects in order to promote the economic development of the country are: education (35%), IT / Telecommunications (24%) and healthcare (7%).

An interesting fact was that female respondents gave more preference to the development of startups in the field of education (40%), compared with men (32%), and less importance to startups in the field of information technology (16%) compared to men (28%). 11% of women and only 5% of men thought that it was necessary to develop startups in medicine.

Almost 1/4 of the U-Reporters participating in this poll believed that in order to increase the number of successful startup projects in the country, financial assistance (24%), improvement of the education system (19%), and the organization of training courses on startups (18%).

Both women and men equally agreed with the need for financial assistance for startups, with women (23%) more inclined than men (16%) to organize training courses on startups for young people. 18% of female respondents also considered it was necessary to exchange experience with foreign startups, while fewer men attached importance to this (12%).

OPINION OF U-REPORTERS:

“I would like to say that I know another definition of a startup, it is a project with a short history of operational activities, the purpose of which is to pay for itself in the shortest possible time. That is, to open a small cafe on the funds obtained using crowdfunding or other means - this is a startup. Perhaps its interpretation is a challenge, marketing is closer to me. ”

“I think many young people have no interest. They are not trying to broader understand this issue. I think it is necessary to increase this interest among young people. For example, questions and answers similar to this poll, organize events using games specific to young people. ”

“First of all, the biggest obstacle is the way of life of our population, because we need to develop the material abilities of our population. In order for there to be many startups, there must be a demand for this. I myself study economics, and I think so. ”

“Draconian interest is required by investors, and asking for support from the state is only to get problems in the future.”

“And the biggest fear is that the business will be simply led away by the big-bellied uncle.”

“In our country there are many smart and capable young people with the pace of developed countries. However, when they create or design a new invention, many officials lobby them, preventing them from developing it because of their ambitions. If they allow them to develop, they will lose the “feeding” in the sphere they monopolize. ”

“The space of start-up and scientific and technological culture is filled with inefficient projects. The Ministry is OBLIGED (it is simply its duty) to implement an objective evaluation of projects at the stage of consideration (with the only criterion - the utility of the project to society and the economy) and TIGHT control of execution. ”

"The state does not need to support, just not interfere, but it seems that for our state this is too difficult a task."

“A high degree of oversight by the government bodies of the science and business sector, and therefore a high level of bureaucratic barriers, and a huge gap between science and industry are a complete ‘”bouquet” of OBSTACLES for the development of startups in the country.”

Most U-Reporters (68%) believed that it was necessary to introduce the subject “Fundamentals of Business /Entrepreneurship” into the curriculum of schools / universities. Almost 1/5 of the respondents said that such a subject was already in their curriculum. Only 11% refused this offer. Men (71%) were bigger supporters of this idea than women (66%).

Note: The data resulting from the polls are not the opinion of UNICEF, they are not representative data, and reflect the opinions of more than 8800 respondents who participated in this U-Report poll.