REGIONAL FACTORS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SIRDARYO REGION

Small business and private entrepreneurship are a key mechanism for creating jobs, raising household incomes, strengthening competition and drawing local resources into economic circulation. However, their growth depends not only on credit and tax incentives but also on a region’s geographic position, infrastructure, labour resources, market access, production cooperation and the quality of public services. This article examines the regional factors and development prospects of small business in Sirdaryo region of Uzbekistan. The study uses official statistics of the National Statistics Committee for 2023–2025 and a qualitative content analysis of the region’s development strategy and concept documents. The results show that the share of small business and private entrepreneurship in the gross regional product rose from 65.0% in 2023 to 69.5% in 2025, which is 17.3 percentage points above the national level. The region’s main advantages are its proximity to the Tashkent agglomeration, international road and rail links, an agricultural raw-material base and access to the markets of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The main constraints are the mismatch between infrastructure readiness and investment siting, insufficient processing and storage capacity, a large informal sector and differences in district specialisation. The article proposes district specialisation maps, a “ready infrastructure – ready project” principle, agro-industrial micro-clusters, export-readiness centres, life-cycle-based financing, a single digital window for entrepreneurs and an outcome-based monitoring system, with a phased implementation plan to 2030.