Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 15 October 2021, an international round table was held in Tashkent on the topic "Topical issues of supporting start-up projects in tourism: domestic practice and foreign experience".

It was organized by the Senate Committee on International relations, foreign economic relations, foreign investment and tourism together with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The main goal of the event was to assist in the development of proposals for improving the mechanisms for supporting start-up projects in Uzbekistan.

As part of the "round table" it was noted that before the coronavirus pandemic, the domestic tourism industry reached the highest rates in its development, but it also suffered the most during the pandemic. Over the past year and a half, the government has taken a number of measures to restore the industry. At the same time, attention in the national strategy for the restoration and development of tourism is paid to the widespread introduction of innovative business ideas and start-up projects.

The participants emphasized that the decree of the President of the country "On urgent measures to support the tourism sector to reduce the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic" from in 2021, according to which 1.5 billion soums were allocated to tourism startups for the development of innovative projects and innovative business ideas in the field of tourism.

Speaking at the event, domestic and foreign experts, scholars of the field considered the issues of increasing the role of the community and the media in training technopreneurs in this industry, supporting tourism start-ups and companies in a pandemic, as well as topics such as the ecosystem of innovations and entrepreneurship, slow tourism and its relevance in post-pandemic world.

International expert of a German consulting company, Maeve O.Brain, in her speech shared her experience on the development of an ecosystem of innovations and entrepreneurship in tourism, in particular, she revealed in more detail the role of each of the ecosystem participants, such as the state, the private sector, startups, corporations and academia, and She also shared examples of support for start-up projects, including in the tourism sector, in some European countries.

At the same time, experts and representatives of the business community noted such factors hindering the development of startups in Uzbekistan as a lack of sources of grant and risk financing, especially in the early stages of development of start-up ideas for testing and piloting projects, difficulties in communication with funds, state development institutions, lack of data and information when assessing the demand for a product, as well as the lack of reliable protection of intellectual property, and more.

During the round table, the experience of Germany, the USA, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Israel, Great Britain and other countries in supporting start-up projects and their widespread introduction into the economy was studied in detail.