On December 19, 2019, the final event of the ECO-Talk project was held within the walls of the Kazakh-German University (KGU), during which young eco-entrepreneurs presented their business projects and discussed ways of cooperation for the benefit of the environment. The event continued with a small exhibition of successful eco-business in Almaty and a round table on "Sustainable business and eco-innovation".
The first part of the event consisted of projects presentations from 4 winners of EcoTalk 2019:
AZIZ HAIDAROV (student of KGU) presented the project “Water Problem Solver” – a mobile application for quick notification of water problems in Uzbekistan, and potentially throughout Central Asia;
ADEBA RAHMATULLA (student of KGU) presented her current business "Eco-Kiim" - ecological sewing workshop for sewing clothes wholesale from eco-fabrics in Almaty;
TOFIK KHAIRANOV (KazNAU student) presented the concept of oil cleaning mechanism named “KhAbCleanOil”;
VLADIMIR KOGAY and ADEMA RYSZHAN (students of Atyrau State University named after H. Dosmukhamedov) presented the project "Alba" – greenhouse complex for growing agricultural products based on hydroponics.
In the second part of the event, young businessmen had the opportunity to exchange experiences and contacts with like-minded people and get feedback on their projects. Several eco-business of Almaty namely Eco-Network company represented by Evgeny Mukhamedzhanov and Nadezhda Vashchenko, Eco-Farmer company represented by Denis Ten, and organic sweet potato production company represented by Anastasia Kim shared their experience with the rest of the participants.
It is also important to note that in addition to entrepreneurs, the discussion on "Sustainable business and eco-innovation" was attended by representatives of government agencies and public organizations, raising questions about the role of eco-activism and network of youth eco-projects in the environmental and economic sustainability of the region. We were honored to hear a speech of Mr. Akmuradov Makhtumkuli, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, and Ms. Alia Absemetova, leader of SDG-16 "Peace, justice and strong institutions".
At the end of the event, participants of Eco-Talk 2019 were awarded certificates and submitted their business plans for the review of ISW.
Earlier, 4 winners of the ECO-Talk training program attended the program of enhanced training in the field of Economics and Business Planning in the mode of a 3-month online school and a week-long training in KGU. As a result, young entrepreneurs were able to significantly improve their practical skills in the field of writing business concepts, taxation, financial analysis, marketing, preparation of public speeches.
Participants’ feedback:
"The trainings organized by KGU were excellent and effective. At these trainings we learned a lot, gained knowledge in the field of taxes, marketing, public speaking and business planning. I want to express my gratitude to all the organizers and speakers of these trainings for all their work, time and attention that they have invested in us, " - said Tofik Khairanov.
"To say in short, the project gave me the opportunity to realize an idea that I had been thinking about for a long time. This project gave me a chance to look at my dreams from the other perspective. Nothing is impossible if you do everything that depends on you, and there are people who believe in you and support you. I am sure that I will continue to use the knowledge that I received as a result of participation in the project, in my professional and social life. In fact – it is an amazing feeling when you do something useful for yourself and for the environment at the same time. After the project, we have a full practical and theoretical knowledge in order to go on a journey to realize our business", - Adeba Rahmatullah.
"The training was very useful, I learned a lot. In particular, I realized that we need an approach to each client separately. And, most importantly, I sharpened my public speaking skills," – Aziz Haidarov said.
The Eco-Talk-2019 project is being implemented by the Kazakh-German University with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the International Secretariat for Wateer, Canada.