USAID’s Future Growth Initiative Quarterly Report

The initiative focuses on supporting women-owned businesses, young entrepreneurs, anchor firms, and other cross-cutting organizations in the startup and e-commerce ecosystems. The program's activities are centered around attracting investment, increasing sales, and improving the business enabling environment. During the reporting period from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, the USAID/FGI continued to support the Central Asia region in building the economy of the future. The program's activities focused on strengthening private sector partnerships across various target sectors in all five Central Asian countries. The goal of these partnerships is to highlight and expand regional market and supply chain opportunities, achieve economies-of-scale in markets and interventions, and share knowledge. One of the highlights of the reporting period was the co-sponsorship of StrategEast's 5th Annual State and IT Eurasian Forum in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The event brought together members of Central Asia's venture capital community with regional government officials, international companies and investors, and the donor community. The forum facilitated sessions where local "angel investors" met with international fund managers, and experts identified ways to improve venture capital legislation in Central Asia. The USAID/FGI also partnered with the Educational Technologies and Initiatives Fund to launch the WSpark Women in Tech project. The project aims to change the status quo by providing women in the region with opportunities to learn, grow, and showcase their technology skills. Since the project's launch in June 2023, more than 350 young women have benefited from 200 mentorship sessions and 35 webinars, leading to the creation of 26 women-led startups in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. In addition, the USAID/FGI supported the development of a Public Disclosure Platform (PDP) for the Ashgabat Stock Exchange. The platform centralizes financial and operational information from listed companies, enabling investors to conduct due diligence and make informed decisions. The PDP will be pivotal in formalizing compliance processes, supporting accountability, and advancing Turkmenistan's capital markets. The USAID/FGI has also partnered with DevCIT, a startup accelerator, to launch Kyrgyzstan's first-ever export-oriented acceleration program. The accelerator assists local companies in overcoming export challenges, including compliance with international certification requirements. The program's geographic coverage includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The reporting period was from October 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, and the program's contract number is 72011519D00001-72011519F00008.