On September 1, 2022, business incubators opened in more than 20 higher educational institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic. Their aim are developing a creative economy, supporting entrepreneurship and creating start-ups among young people. The head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Akylbek Zhaparov, took part in the opening ceremony of business incubators, and stressed that the Kyrgyz Republic is promising for the development of a creative economy. According to the Silicon Valley theory, only 10 percent of startups succeed. Therefore, in order to influence really to the development of the national economy, it is necessary to develop tens of thousands of start-ups in Kyrgyzstan every year, and there must be open competition of business ideas in the market.
Startup Center KSU I. Arabaev has been operating since May 2022 and today is actively working towards the development of entrepreneurial skills and the implementation of start-up ideas among students.
The activities of the Startup Center aim are developing a creative economy, supporting entrepreneurship and implementing startup ideas among students. The startup center is a platform where talented students can transform their ideas into real projects with the help of mentors and mentors. Representatives of the business and start-up spheres are involved in the role of mentors, and the Startup Center and responsible persons for the start-up from the structures of KSU named after I. Arabaev.
The main goal of the Startup Center is to teach students real technologies for the development and implementation of project ideas with the subsequent extraction of economic benefits.
To implement the tasks set, responsible representatives from each structure of the university assigned to the Startup Center, who work together with students?
Today our students can:
First, fill out an online application and become a member of the Startup Center. The link is available through the center's Instagram page - @startup.arabaev.
What will the completed questionnaire for students give? Based on the questionnaires, a database of students is formed. Students from the base will be involved in all events organized by the Startup Center, these are: trainings; team building; contests; workshops, etc.
Second, fill out an online application for project ideas. The link is available through the Instagram page @startup.arabaev.
What will the completed online application give? The online application will be reviewed by the center. If necessary, the project is finalized and then the project is prepared for discussion with mentors.
The start-up center cooperates with Enactus Kyrgyzstan as part of its activities. Today, our students can join the current team "Enactus KSU named after I. Arabaev" and become a member of the creative, youth team "Enactus Kyrgyzstan".
Enactus is an international non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring students to improve the world through entrepreneurship. Enactus is actively developing in universities of 37 countries of the world! There are more than 30 teams from different universities in Kyrgyzstan. The “Enactus KSU named after I. Arabaev” team consists of 20 active students from different structures and today they are working together on the “Onor union” project, which is being implemented with the support of the university and “Enactus Kyrgyzstan”.
The key concept of a startup is the element of novelty of the proposed product or service. The essence of a startup is to offer customers (consumers) a new solution to an existing industry (in life) problem. Thus, experts consider a startup partly as creative and as an innovative undertaking (project). However, a startup does not have to be an innovative production. First, the startup offers a fundamentally new approach. Of course, existing technologies can use, but they are used for a new target audience, or the startup product is positioned from some new side.