14.02.2025

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with representatives of youth on February 14. Measures to further expand opportunities for young people were discussed in the videoconference format.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Head of State expressed joy at the opportunity to meet with the youth again and called them “the golden fund of our nation”. 

Youth makes up 60 percent of Uzbekistan's population, and more than 600 thousand young people enter the labor market every year, the number of which may reach 1 million by 2030.

Ensuring employment and creating favorable conditions for the realization of the potential of young people have become priority areas of State policy. Over the past 8 years, the number of young entrepreneurs has tripled, and today they account for almost 40 percent of the business sector.

At the same time, the unemployment rate among young people has halved and the number of unemployment-free mahallas has reached 1,889. Last year through the “Youth Notebook” 180 thousand young people were assisted to the amount of 345 billion soums.

Previously, at least 10 applicants had to compete for one place in higher education institutions. Thanks to the rapid growth in the number of universities, higher education now covers 42 percent of young people, and government support for contractual payment for women has led to an 11-fold increase in the number of female students. 

The number of young specialists achieving success in various spheres is steadily growing: more than 1.5 thousand of our students are studying in top foreign universities, over the past 25 years the state program has allowed sending 800 young people abroad, and only over the past 7 years, thanks to the “El-Yurt Umidi” fund, 2.3 thousand compatriots have received this opportunity. 

The number of young scientists with academic degrees has doubled and exceeded 4 thousand people, and the culture of reading has become a national movement - the number of participants in the traditional contest “Yosh Kitobkhon” has reached 3 million.

Special attention is paid to the study of foreign languages: over the past 3 years, the number of young people who have started studying languages has reached 2 million, and the number of those who get high scores on the IELTS exam has grown fivefold. 

Uzbekistan's youth policy has been recognized at the international level - the country is among the 10 states most actively implementing the “Youth - 2030” strategy under the aegis of the UN.

At the meeting, the President announced the signing of three key documents aimed at supporting youth entrepreneurship. 

As part of these measures, a fund with an allocation of $100 million will be established under the Agency for Youth Affairs, which will allow providing young entrepreneurs with soft loans of up to 2.5 billion soums and investments in startup projects of up to 2 billion soums. 

At the same time, a new system for employment of university graduates will be launched: the National Bank will receive $100 million to introduce a package of banking services aimed at turning the ideas and initiatives of young people into real projects. 

A commission consisting of khokims, bank and business representatives will be established to ensure the employment of graduates. 

According to the third document, “Alokabank” will be transformed into a backbone bank to support business projects of young people and will be allocated $200 million. The bank will provide soft microloans up to 100 million soums for up to 7 years for the self-employed.

Individual entrepreneurs who have opened small businesses and training centers and hired at least 20 young employees will be granted preferential loans of up to 5 billion soums. At least 30 percent of the loans will be allocated to support women's entrepreneurship.

This year, it is planned to provide employment for 5.2 million people, with a significant share of jobs for young people. 

Young people earning at least 100 million soums with effective use of land plots will be provided with plots on simplified terms, and young entrepreneurs who obtained production areas through industrial mortgage will be provided with modern equipment on favorable terms. Service enterprises employing young people and paying salaries of at least 3 million soums per month will be subject to a social tax of 1 percent.

In the creative economy, 98 percent of workers are young people. Last year, a law was adopted defining the legal framework for this sphere.

Now it is planned to create creative industry parks in the regions, whose residents will be subject to a preferential tax regime until the end of 2030. Business schools will also be organized to teach innovative methods of doing business and providing e-commerce services.

Knowledge of foreign languages plays an important role in finding a job, so qualified young people studying in language centers in remote regions will be provided with an interest-free loan of up to 120 million soums. In addition, young people's expenses for learning foreign languages in private training centers will be compensated according to the “2+6” months scheme.

In IT sphere it is planned to attract additional 300 thousand young people to the project “One million programmers”. A long-term strategy will also be developed to implement the “Digital Social Ecosystem”. 

One of the most effective ways to combat poverty is education. Therefore, conditions will be created for at least one child in a low-income family to receive higher education by providing interest-free educational loans, additional grants and assistance in paying the contract. For talented young people from socially vulnerable families, a new project “Bright Future” will be launched to study abroad. 

The Youth Agency will support every student studying abroad, and educated young people will be sent to top-100 foreign universities with tuition and living expenses covered. Foreign-educated graduates will be included in the national talent pool and employed in government agencies without competition.

In addition, young scientists up to 35 years of age who have received a degree from prestigious international universities will be provided with an interest-free loan of up to 800 million soums for the purchase of housing for up to 10 years. The amount of lump-sum monetary reward for winners and prize-winners of prestigious international scientific Olympiads will be increased 5 times. 

Quotas of “El-Yurt Umidi” fund will be increased for the sectors of energy, transport, urbanization, modern architecture and medicine. The state scholarship of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief will be introduced for excellent students of military educational institutions. 

From the next academic year, engineering Olympiads and competitions will be organized among students, and the best graduates will be admitted to technical universities on a grant basis.

The meeting also discussed the issues of strengthening the ideological immunity of the young generation, shielding it from the impact of destructive ideas. It was emphasized that young people with difficult upbringing need special care and assistance in finding their place in life. 

In order to strengthen patriotism among students of grades 10-11, the “Vatan Tayanchi” movement has been launched and more than 300,000 young people have already joined it. This movement will be extended to vocational schools, technical colleges and private educational institutions, covering 1 million students. Various contests and competitions will be organized, and “Shijoat va Gayrat” sports games will be held in mahallas, the winners of which will be given recommendations for admission to military schools.

Speakers at the meeting noted that the proposed measures and initiatives will create more opportunities for young people and become a powerful incentive for the fulfillment of their aspirations. 

The President supported the youth's proposals and assured that support for young people would remain a constant priority.