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Small businesses and private entrepreneurship are a cornerstone of Uzbekistan’s economy, generating around half of gross domestic product (GDP) and the majority of employment. This paper analyzes the growth dynamics of small business entities over 2021–2025 using official data from the National Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Growth is examined along three dimensions: the stock of active entities, the flow of newly registered firms, and the sector’s contribution to output. The results reveal an apparent paradox — while the number of active small business entities continued to expand, surpassing 1.2 million by late 2025, the sector’s share in GDP gently declined from 56.9% in 2021 to 51.5% in January–September 2025, reflecting the faster growth of large-scale industry and energy. Trade, agriculture, and services remain the dominant fields of entry. The study attributes these dynamics to liberalization reforms, simplified registration, tax incentives, and improved access to finance, while identifying constraints such as informality, limited long-term credit, and concentration in low-value-added activities. Policy recommendations are offered to convert quantitative growth into productivity-driven development.
Salayev et al. (Wed,) studied this question.