Improving the Mechanisms for Attracting Local and Foreign Investment to Small Business (On the Example of Surkhandarya Region)

This article examines the current state of, and the organizational and economic mechanisms for, attracting local and foreign investment to small business entities in the Surkhandarya region of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Based on official statistical data for 2019–2025, the study analyzes the dynamics of investment in fixed capital, the inflow of foreign direct investment, and the contribution of small business to the gross regional product and employment of the region. The research applies a combination of statistical, comparative, correlation and SWOT analysis, supplemented by a questionnaire survey of small business entities. The results reveal a structural mismatch between the high share of small business in regional output and its low share in total investment inflow, as well as institutional, financial, infrastructural and informational barriers that constrain investment attraction in a border region. On this basis, the author proposes an improved organizational and economic mechanism comprising six interrelated blocks — institutional, financial, information-digital, infrastructural, human capital and risk-mitigation — coordinated through a regional council for investment and small business. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the substantiation of a regionally adapted investment attraction mechanism that takes into account the border location, agro-industrial specialization and transit potential of Surkhandarya region.