Uzbekistan Venture Capital Association.
Suggestions for inclusion in the Law on Supporting the Activities of Innovative Startups (Law on Startups), which is being considered for adoption.
As you know, the responsible Ministries and departments are working on the preparation of a bill to support startups.
The Venture Investment Association of Uzbekistan, following the results of online conferences with members of the Advisory Council of the Association (foreign experts in the field of venture financing), as well as the results of studying foreign experience in this field, proposes to take into account the following aspects necessary for the development of venture and startup ecosystems in the bill Uzbekistan:
– Definition, registration and provision of privileges for innovative start-ups: a simplified form for hiring employees, exemption from taxes for cash-out, the possibility of obtaining a loan secured by intellectual property, the right to leave for 1 year, etc .;
– At the legislative level, the implementation of the following venture capital instruments: option agreement, convertible loan agreement, crowdfunding agreement, etc.
– The provision of benefits and privileges for business incubators and accelerators;
– The provision of benefits, subsidies and privileges for individual venture investors;
– In order to attract foreign technology and capital: launch the “start-up visa” program, as well as assigning the duties of “Digital Ambassador” or “Innovation Ambassador” to the embassies of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Western countries;
– The adoption of the necessary measures for the entry and promotion of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the Global rating of countries attractiveness for venture capital (The Global VC / PE country attractiveness index). (For information: Russia – 39th place, Kazakhstan – 57th place, Kyrgyzstan – 94th place, Uzbekistan is not in the list);
– Implementation of the Department of Venture Management in specialized universities of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
– Creation of a Fund of funds. (By analogy to the program Yozma (Israel), RVC (Russia), KKR (Finland), QazTechVenture (Kazakhstan), etc.)
– Consideration of the possibility of determining special zones for structuring transactions under English law in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
As world experience shows, without the introduction of a system for commercializing startup projects and without developing a venture investment market, it is impossible to achieve the innovative development of the country as a whole.
Based on this, we consider it particularly important to pay attention to the development of the individual venture investment market, because this particular category of investments is vital at the pre-sowing and sowing stage of development of startup projects (for information: more than 90% of domestic “startup projects” are at this stage of development) .
It is also necessary to take into account international experience, which shows that the grant funds allocated directly to startup projects do not give the expected result.
