Advanced Foreign Experience in Developing Women's Entrepreneurship and Opportunities for Its Application in Uzbekistan: The Turkey Model
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51699/cajitmf.v7i3.1299Keywords:
Women's Entrepreneurship, Turkey, KOSGEB, KAGIDER, Microcredit, Mentoring, Women's Cooperatives, Uzbekistan, Tadbirkor Ayol,Abstract
Women's entrepreneurship has moved to the centre of development policy in much of the world, and Turkey 's two-decade experience offers a useful case for study. Between 2002 and 2023, the share of women among Turkish entrepreneurs rose from 13.1 to 17.4 percent, accompanied by an eight-percentage-point gain in female labour force participation. The gains are modest but real, and the institutional machinery that produced them is more interesting than the headline numbers alone. This paper examines that machinery, tracing the architecture built around KOSGEB, Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey KAGIDER and ISKUR, and asks which elements could be adapted to Uzbek conditions. Drawing on TUIK (Turkish Statistical Institute) figures, the Turkish government's women's entrepreneurship portal, UNDP and EBRD assessments, and policy documents from both countries, the analysis identifies four mechanisms with strong adaptation potential: positive discrimination in financial support, an integrated information portal, cooperative-based rural programmes, and university-anchored mentoring. The argument is not that Turkey has solved the problem — its progress has been slow — but that its trial-and-error provides usable lessons for Uzbekistan, where 2.1 million women now run businesses, women still constitute only 17 percent of formal corporate-sector entrepreneurs, and a March 2025 presidential decree has just unlocked an additional 200 million USD in women-targeted financing.
References
Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan (new edition). Tashkent, 1 May 2023.
Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. ORQ-562 of 2 September 2019 "On Guarantees of Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men".
Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PF-87 of 7 March 2022 "On Measures to Further Accelerate Systematic Support for Family and Women".
UNDP Uzbekistan. Women's Entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan: Assessment and Recommendations. Tashkent: UNDP, 2025.
Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan of 8 March 2025 "On Additional Measures to Support the Development of Women's Entrepreneurship". Available at: https://president.uz.
Republic of Turkey Women's Entrepreneurship Portal. Women Entrepreneurship Statistics. Available at: https://kadingirisimci.gov.tr/en/women-entrepreneurship/ (accessed 11 May 2026).
Republic of Turkey . Twelfth Development Plan (2024–2028). Ankara: Presidency of Strategy and Budget, 2023.
KOSGEB. Women Entrepreneur Support Package. Available at: https://kadingirisimci.gov.tr/en/support-and-incentives/ (accessed 11 May 2026).
Erai Turkey. KOSGEB Supports Turkish Women Entrepreneurs. 2020. Available at: https://eraiturkey.com/2020/01/kosgeb-supports-turkish-women-entrepreneurs/.
KAGİDER. About Us; KAGİDER Momentum Programme Launch (August 2025). Available at: https://kagider.org/ (accessed 11 May 2026).
KAGİDER. Turkey Kadın Girişimcilik Endeksi — 2019 Araştırma Raporu. Istanbul: Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey , 2019.
TÜİK. İstatistiklerle Kadın, 2024. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute, 2025.
Government of Uzbekistan. Bridging the Gap: Building Inclusive Ecosystems for Women Entrepreneurs. Tashkent: gov.uz, 2025.
Kursiv Media. Uzbekistan Marks First Year of We-Finance Code to Boost Women Entrepreneurs. September 2025.
Times of Central Asia. Interview with Andi Aranitasi, Head of the EBRD in Uzbekistan. February 2025.
OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. Empowering Women Farmers in Central Asia: A New Era for Sustainable Agribusiness. Tashkent, 2024.
Çoban A. More and Better Jobs for Women: Women's Empowerment through Decent Work in Turkey. Geneva: ILO, 2018.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Xusanova Zulfiya Raxmatullayevna
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
In submitting the manuscript to the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance, the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- The publication has been approved by the author(s) and by responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.
License and Copyright Agreement
Authors who publish with Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Central Asian Journal of Innovations on Tourism Management and Finance published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or edit it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
