Ashgabat, 5 March 2020: Taking into account the important role of youth in the country's economic development, during February-March 2020 the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Turkmenistan and the Youth Union named after Makhtumkuli hold free seminars for young people of Turkmenistan on the basics of entrepreneurship and writing business plans in the cities of Ashgabat, Tedjen, Mary, Dashoguz and Turkmenabat. The seminars are held with support of the Government of Japan.

“The training program for the seminars was prepared to help young people develop entrepreneurial skills and promote their startup ideas. Seminars are attended by young people aged 18 to 29 years and are held based on the specially developed teaching materials taking into account the conditions of Turkmenistan,” says UNDP project consultant Arslan Joraev.

To date, practical workshops have been held in four cities of Turkmenistan: Turkmenabad, Mary, Tedjen and Ashgabat. About 100 young men and women, future entrepreneurs, have already taken part in the seminars.

Special feature of these seminars is that they are held with participation of successful entrepreneurs, as well as experts in the economic field. Participants of the seminars had an opportunity to discuss their ideas and questions raised with successful businessmen who shared their experience of organizing business, attracting funds and taking loans, as well as using of the innovative technologies for business development. Thus, the theory provided by the project trainers was matched with the practical experience shared by the invited business circles of Turkmenistan.

It should be noted that the seminars and meetings held with entrepreneurs were useful not only for the participants, but also for the experts themselves. One of the entrepreneurs from the city of Turkmenabat, after the end of the event, noted that he was inspired by the fact that young people - participants of the seminar “expressed keen interest in the sphere, and strive to achieve success in business.”

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The workshops are part of the regional project, “Strengthening Community Resilience and Regional Cooperation to Prevent Violent Extremism in Central Asia”, funded by the Japanese government.